Informal Housing in the Global North proposes analytical and conceptual approaches to investigate the progressing informalisation of contemporary housing in the Global North and beyond.
Amidst the ongoing housing crisis, the reading of informalities in the so-called North has increasingly disrupted the conventional understanding of local cities as fully regulated, well-structured and formal. By juxtaposing contested, successful and under- the- radar ordinary housing phenomena across various income levels, this volume seeks to unpack and document the embeddedness of informality in mid- and high-income cities. This investigation reveals the pervasive and hybrid nature of local housing systems, in which formal frameworks defining modes of utilising spaces and architectural design are continuously reinterpreted by users, public sector actors and market entities alike. It reflects on everyday housing pathways and the agency of those who, by preference or necessity, engage with solutions conventionally labelled as informal.
This book will be of interest to scholars and students of housing studies, planning, architecture and urban sociology as well as practitioners working in the field of housing.
Informal Housing in the Global North proposes analytical and conceptual approaches to investigate the progressing informalisation of contemporary housing in the Global North and beyond.
List of figures
List of tables
List of contributors
1. Introduction Perspectives on housing informality in the North
Jakub Gauszka
Part I: Encroachment
2. Formal/informal continuum? Secondary dwelling production and digital
rental markets in Sydney, Australia
Zahra Nasreen, Pranita Shrestha and Nicole Gurran
3. Navigating Hong Kong's informal housing: Stakeholders interactions on
spatial quality in subdivided homes
Maggie Ma Kingsley and Jen Lam
Part II: Solidarities
4. Otherness and informality: everyday tactics of social inclusion among
Oxford boating community
Jakub Gauszka
5. Refugee access to housing in fermany: (In)formal restrictions and
opportunities
Nihad El-Kayed
Part III: Struggles and appropriation
6. For a spatial politics of dwelling. Awareness, contestation and homemaking
in the individual occupations of public housing in Naples, Italy
Emiliano Esposito
7. Making a platz in the city: How Roma families appropriate urban space to
have a home in Paris suburbs
Céline Véniat
Part IV: Gatekeeping
8. Unpacking everyday management in a City Improvement District: property
caretakers as street-level bureaucrats in Ekhaya, Hillbrow, Johannesburg
Thembani Mkhize
9. Living in someone elses place: an exploration of subletting practices in
Berlin
in Times of Housing Crisis.
Lucas Elsner, Minou Boucheri, Olga ojewska and Anna Potanina
10. Concluding remarks and way forward
Jakub Galuszka
Index
Jakub Gauszka is Junior Professor of Sustainable Cities and Climate Change at the HafenCity University Hamburg. His research focuses on housing, informality, and urban sustainability. Currently he leads two research projects: Inconspicuous Transformations: The Socio-Spatial Reconfiguration of Formal Housing in Europe, funded by the DFG, and Passive Solutions in Self-Build and Incremental Housing: Toward Inclusive Socio-Ecological Transformation in Rapidly Urbanising Areas, supported by the Volkswagen Foundation.
