IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v47y2023i1p23-38.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: Heterogeneous Governance, Claims Making and Forced Eviction in a Megacity

Author

Listed:
  • Brianna Castro

Abstract

Residents of informal settlements worldwide face challenges defending their land tenure. In contexts with overlapping systems of governance these challenges are even more complex and claims to land tenure more precarious. How do heterogeneous systems of governance, a characteristic of some global South megacities, affect evictions? This article presents an in‐depth case study of the informal Otodo Gbame waterfront settlement's struggle to defend its customary land tenure through multiple authorities in Lagos, Nigeria. The analysis reveals how a heterogeneous system of governance disempowers citizens by obscuring the locus of power and creating confusion when communities make claims on the state. Communities find themselves claiming rights to the city that receive varying degrees of recognition from the many authorities within the heterogeneous system. In Lagos, the state weaponizes this heterogeneous system in pursuit of modern development and urban growth.

Suggested Citation

  • Brianna Castro, 2023. "BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: Heterogeneous Governance, Claims Making and Forced Eviction in a Megacity," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 23-38, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:47:y:2023:i:1:p:23-38
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13152
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.13152
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-2427.13152?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vij, Sumit & Narain, Vishal & Karpouzoglou, Timothy & Mishra, Pratik, 2018. "From the core to the periphery: Conflicts and cooperation over land and water in periurban Gurgaon, India," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 382-390.
    2. Ananya Roy, 2011. "Slumdog Cities: Rethinking Subaltern Urbanism," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 223-238, March.
    3. Catherine Boone, 2019. "Legal Empowerment of the Poor through Property Rights Reform: Tensions and Trade-offs of Land Registration and Titling in Sub-Saharan Africa," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 55(3), pages 384-400, March.
    4. Lee, Ryun Jung & Newman, Galen, 2021. "The relationship between vacant properties and neighborhood gentrification," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    5. Christian Lund, 2011. "Property and Citizenship: Conceptually Connecting Land Rights and Belonging in Africa," Africa Spectrum, Institute of African Affairs, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 46(3), pages 71-75.
    6. Katherine Brickell, 2014. "“The Whole World Is Watching”: Intimate Geopolitics of Forced Eviction and Women's Activism in Cambodia," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 104(6), pages 1256-1272, November.
    7. El-hadj M. Bah & Issa Faye & Zekebweliwai F. Geh, 2018. "Housing Market Dynamics in Africa," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-1-137-59792-2, October.
    8. Solomon Benjamin, 2008. "Occupancy Urbanism: Radicalizing Politics and Economy beyond Policy and Programs," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(3), pages 719-729, September.
    9. Agboola, Alirat Olayinka & Scofield, David & Amidu, Abdul-Rasheed, 2017. "Understanding property market operations from a dual institutional perspective: The case of Lagos, Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 89-96.
    10. Nicholas K. Tagliarino & Yakubu A. Bununu & Magbagbeola O. Micheal & Marcello De Maria & Akintobi Olusanmi, 2018. "Compensation for Expropriated Community Farmland in Nigeria: An In-Depth Analysis of the Laws and Practices Related to Land Expropriation for the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Lagos," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(1), pages 1-38, February.
    11. Rasmussen, Mattias Borg & Lund, Christian, 2018. "Reconfiguring Frontier Spaces: The territorialization of resource control," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 388-399.
    12. Monika Streule & Ozan Karaman & Lindsay Sawyer & Christian Schmid, 2020. "Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 652-672, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Onyebueke, Victor & Walker, Julian & Lipietz, Barbara & Ujah, Oliver & Ibezim-Ohaeri, Victoria, 2020. "Urbanisation-induced displacements in peri-urban areas: Clashes between customary tenure and statutory practices in Ugbo-Okonkwo Community in Enugu, Nigeria," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    2. Monika Streule & Ozan Karaman & Lindsay Sawyer & Christian Schmid, 2020. "Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 652-672, July.
    3. Nikita Sud, 2020. "The Unfixed State of Unfixed Land," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 51(5), pages 1175-1198, September.
    4. Malini Ranganathan, 2014. "Paying for Pipes, Claiming Citizenship: Political Agency and Water Reforms at the Urban Periphery," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 590-608, March.
    5. Harshavardhan Jatkar, 2024. "BODIES AGAINST MODERNITY: Politics of Slum Rehabilitations in India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 111-125, January.
    6. Tahire Erman, 2016. "Formalization by the State, Re-Informalization by the People: A Gecekondu Transformation Housing Estate as Site of Multiple Discrepancies," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(2), pages 425-440, March.
    7. Seth Schindler, 2014. "Producing and contesting the formal/informal divide: Regulating street hawking in Delhi, India," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 51(12), pages 2596-2612, September.
    8. Auerbach, Adam Michael, 2017. "Neighborhood Associations and the Urban Poor: India’s Slum Development Committees," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 119-135.
    9. Indivar Jonnalagadda & Ryan Stock & Karan Misquitta, 2021. "TITLING AS A CONTESTED PROCESS: Conditional Land Rights and Subaltern Citizenship in South India," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(3), pages 458-476, May.
    10. Agboola, Alirat Olayinka & Amidu, Abdul-Rasheed & Olapade, Daramola Thompson & Odebode, Adedayo Ayodeji, 2023. "Transnational large-scale land investments in developing economies: What role do formal institutions play?," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    11. João Tonucci, 2023. "PROPERTY‐LED INFORMALITY: Shifting Informal Land Development from Popular Housing to Middle‐Class and Elite Speculation in Belo Horizonte," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 527-545, July.
    12. Bert Suykens, 2015. "The Land that Disappeared: Forceful Occupation, Disputes and the Negotiation of Landlord Power in a Bangladeshi Bastee," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(3), pages 486-507, May.
    13. Linda Peake, 2016. "The Twenty-First-Century Quest for Feminism and the Global Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 219-227, January.
    14. Helga Leitner & Eric Sheppard, 2016. "Provincializing Critical Urban Theory: Extending the Ecosystem of Possibilities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 228-235, January.
    15. Valkonen, Anni, 2021. "Examining sources of land tenure (in)security. A focus on authority relations, state politics, social dynamics and belonging," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).
    16. Erin Collins, 2021. "OF CROWDED HISTORIES AND URBAN THEORY: A Feminist Critique of Temporal Closure and Patrimonial Claims to the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(4), pages 612-629, July.
    17. Usmaan Farooqui, 2020. "Politics of neutrality: Urban knowledge practices and everyday formalisation in Karachi’s waterscape," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2423-2439, September.
    18. Chandan Deuskar, 2020. "Informal urbanisation and clientelism: Measuring the global relationship," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(12), pages 2473-2490, September.
    19. Tiguéné Nabassaga & El-Hadj Bah & Issa Faye, 2019. "Working Paper 312 - Quality Homes for Sustainable Malaria Prevention in Africa," Working Paper Series 2438, African Development Bank.
    20. Azunre, Gideon Abagna & Amponsah, Owusu & Takyi, Stephen Appiah & Mensah, Henry & Braimah, Imoro, 2022. "Urban informalities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA): A solution for or barrier against sustainable city development," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:47:y:2023:i:1:p:23-38. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.