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‘Bankable Slums’: the global politics of slum upgrading

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  • Branwen Jones

Abstract

This article develops a critical analysis of the Slum Upgrading Facility, a new initiative of UN-Habitat which seeks to improve conditions for residents of slums in Africa and elsewhere. The analysis highlights the neoliberal principles underpinning this initiative, and especially the vision of slum improvement by means of financialisation. The article argues that it is necessary and important to recognise the politics of international urban development and housing, which has since the 1970s increasingly emphasised neoliberal principles of private property and market institutions. The novel ambition of financialisation must also be situated in relation to historical transformations of housing finance in Anglo-American capitalism over the past three decades. After situating the ideological principles underpinning the Slum Upgrading Facility in these longer and broader global trajectories of international policy, the final section returns to the present to examine other initiatives currently being pursued alongside slum upgrading: the active promotion of mortgage markets in Africa.

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  • Branwen Jones, 2012. "‘Bankable Slums’: the global politics of slum upgrading," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(5), pages 769-789.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:33:y:2012:i:5:p:769-789
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2012.679027
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    Cited by:

    1. Elisa Van Waeyenberge, 2018. "Crisis? What crisis? A critical appraisal of World Bank housing policy in the wake of the global financial crisis," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(2), pages 288-309, March.
    2. Susanne Soederberg, 2018. "Evictions: A Global Capitalist Phenomenon," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 49(2), pages 286-301, March.
    3. Raffael Beier, 2021. "FROM VISIBLE INFORMALITY TO SPLINTERED INFORMALITIES: Reflections on the Production of ‘Formality’ in a Moroccan Housing Programme," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(6), pages 930-947, November.

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