IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v61y2024i9p1722-1737.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Informality through the state: How overregulation and tolerance shape informal land development in metropolitan Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • João Tonucci

    (Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil)

Abstract

The relationship between the state and informal land development in Global South metropolises has yet not received much attention in urban studies. Concerning that knowledge gap, this paper investigates how the state regulates and inspects irregular and clandestine land subdivisions in the Metropolitan Region of Belo Horizonte (MRBH). A mixed-methods approach, focused on the inner workings of the land development control policy led by the MRBH Agency between 2009 and 2018, provides new evidence of the relationships between inspectors, developers, and prosecutors, among other actors. By delving deep into the intricate nexus between a changing regulatory landscape and the bureaucratic, street-level, and everyday enforcement practices by officials, the paper reveals how land development control, directly and indirectly, shapes informal land development in the MRBH. Particularly, it sheds light on how land development control unrolls through a contradictory combination of overregulation on one side and tolerance on the other. In light of this, I argue that, as land development control evolves without effectively tackling the land question and the structural drivers of informality, the state becomes paradoxically entangled in the production of the same forms of informality it is expected to curb. Therefore, land development control is better understood as a fragile and ambivalent state compromise between the need to regulate urban expansion and market-driven informal urbanisation. By creating opportunities for rent extraction and capital accumulation which are explored by informal land developers, the state has been crucial for property-led informal urbanisation in metropolitan Brazil.

Suggested Citation

  • João Tonucci, 2024. "Informality through the state: How overregulation and tolerance shape informal land development in metropolitan Brazil," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(9), pages 1722-1737, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:9:p:1722-1737
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231215708
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980231215708
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980231215708?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. Mariana Fix & Pedro Fiori Arantes, 2022. "On urban studies in Brazil: The favela, uneven urbanisation and beyond," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 893-916, April.
    2. Francesco Chiodelli, 2019. "The illicit side of urban development: Corruption and organised crime in the field of urban planning," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(8), pages 1611-1627, June.
    3. Faiza Moatasim, 2019. "Entitled urbanism: Elite informality and the reimagining of a planned modern city," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 56(5), pages 1009-1025, April.
    4. Rita Lambert, 2021. "Land Trafficking and the Fertile Spaces of Legality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 21-38, January.
    5. Mara Nogueira, 2019. "Displacing Informality: Rights and Legitimacy in Belo Horizonte, Brazil," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 517-534, May.
    6. Christian G. Haid & Hanna Hilbrandt, 2019. "Urban Informality and the State: Geographical Translations and Conceptual Alliances," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 551-562, May.
    7. Tuna Kuyucu, 2014. "Law, Property and Ambiguity: The Uses and Abuses of Legal Ambiguity in Remaking Istanbul's Informal Settlements," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(2), pages 609-627, March.
    8. 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.
    9. Estebania Teyeliz Martínez-Jiménez & Julie Le Gallo & Enrique Pérez-Campuzano & Alonso Aguilar Ibarra, 2022. "The effects of land price in the peri-urban fringe of Mexico City: Environmental amenities for informal land parcel purchasers," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(1), pages 222-241, January.
    10. Tom Goodfellow, 2020. "Political Informality: Deals, Trust Networks, and the Negotiation of Value in the Urban Realm," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 278-294, February.
    11. Roberto Rocco & Luciana Royer & Fábio Mariz Gonçalves, 2019. "Characterization of Spatial Planning in Brazil: The Right to the City in Theory and Practice," Planning Practice & Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 419-437, August.
    12. Nicola Banks & Melanie Lombard & Diana Mitlin, 2020. "Urban Informality as a Site of Critical Analysis," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(2), pages 223-238, February.
    13. Xuefei Ren, 2018. "Governing the Informal: Housing Policies Over Informal Settlements in China, India, and Brazil," Housing Policy Debate, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 79-93, January.
    14. Ann Varley, 2017. "Property titles and the urban poor: from informality to displacement?," Planning Theory & Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 385-404, 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. 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.
    2. Deen Sharp, 2022. "Haphazard urbanisation: Urban informality, politics and power in Egypt," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(4), pages 734-749, March.
    3. Jakub Galuszka, 2024. "BOATS AS HOUSING IN OXFORD, UK: Trajectories of Informality in a High‐Income Context," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(1), pages 126-144, January.
    4. Mojgan Taheri Tafti, 2024. "Capturing planning: Politics of land based accumulation in Tehran," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 42(6), pages 1045-1063, September.
    5. Martine El Ouardi & Françoise Montambeault, 2023. "COLLECTIVELY GARDENING THE URBAN PUBLIC SPACE IN MEXICO CITY: When Informal Practices Interact with the State," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(2), pages 201-220, March.
    6. Rita Lambert, 2021. "Land Trafficking and the Fertile Spaces of Legality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(1), pages 21-38, January.
    7. Jesper Bjarnesen, 2023. "THE POWER OF IMPENDING ZONING: Governance through Inaction in a Secondary City in Burkina Faso," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 39-53, January.
    8. Eakin, Hallie & Keele, Svenja & Lueck, Vanessa, 2022. "Uncomfortable knowledge: Mechanisms of urban development in adaptation governance," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    9. Yi Jin & Yimin Zhao, 2022. "THE INFORMAL CONSTITUTION OF STATE CENTRALITY: Governing Street Businesses in (Post‐)Pandemic Chengdu, China," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 631-650, July.
    10. Kim Dovey & Redento B Recio, 2024. "Inventraset assemblages: The spatial logic of informal street vending, transport and settlement," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(12), pages 2265-2289, September.
    11. Mara Nogueira, 2024. "“The Worker's Party sold out the street vendors†: Revanchist populism and the crisis of labor in Belo Horizonte, Brazil," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 42(4), pages 527-543, June.
    12. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    13. 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).
    14. Esin Özdemir & Ayda Eraydin, 2017. "Fragmentation in Urban Movements: The Role of Urban Planning Processes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(5), pages 727-748, September.
    15. Ligita Gasparėnienė & Rita Remeikienė & Colin C. Williams, 2022. "Unemployment and the Informal Economy," SpringerBriefs in Economics, Springer, number 978-3-030-96687-4, September.
    16. Selam Robi, 2024. "Addis deals: reckoning with the informal governance of urban structural transformation," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2024-40, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    17. Priscila Izar, 2022. "Meanings of Self-Building: Incrementality, Emplacement, and Erasure in Dar es Salaam’s Traditional Swahili Neighborhoods," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 7(1), pages 305-320.
    18. Yahya Gamal & Nuno Pinto & Deljana Iossifova, 2024. "The role of procedural utility in land market dynamics in Greater Cairo: An agent based model application," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 51(4), pages 954-970, May.
    19. Adriana Allen, 2022. "Navigating stigma through everyday city-making: Gendered trajectories, politics and outcomes in the periphery of Lima," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(3), pages 490-508, February.
    20. Lindsay Sawyer & Christian Schmid & Monika Streule & Pascal Kallenberger, 2021. "Bypass urbanism: Re-ordering center-periphery relations in Kolkata, Lagos and Mexico City," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(4), pages 675-703, June.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:9:p:1722-1737. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.