Priscila Izar | University of the Witwatersrand (original) (raw)
Papers by Priscila Izar
A matter of value: assessing the scope and effects of Tanzania’s national housing corporation’s development strategy on Dar es Salaam’s urban neighbourhoods, 2020
Real estate industry urban redevelopment housing policy informality low-income housing As East Af... more Real estate industry urban redevelopment housing policy informality low-income housing As East African cities experience rapid urbanization and population growth (OECD, 2017), access to affordable housing becomes a critical issue for research, practice, and construction of more sustainable and inclusive cities (UN Habitat, 2016). This happens against the backdrop of a shift in housing policy, from direct production to support for the expansion of private and semi-private (public-private) housing markets (Abdullahi & Azriyati, 2011). Marketization (Harris, 2015) refers to the growing reliance of nation states on the private sector to finance, build and manage urban infrastructure and services. Marketization involves the public sector' s adoption of corporate practices aiming at greater efficiency (Grimsey & Lewis, 2007). The connection between marketization and housing provision happened originally in Western Europe and the United States, where the loss of federal funding and the flexibilization of financing in the 1990s forced public
Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Sahara... more Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Saharan Africa, like in other countries and regions of the Global South, the new corona virus pandemic highlights a long lasting urban crisis. This crisis is manifested through a lack of water and sanitation, and adequate shelter, as well as food insecurity. Mitigating the risk and the effects of this pandemic in these poor communities must combine social isolation with protection of livelihoods through free access to clean water, adequate shelter, food security, and the provision of context-based information to local communities about the disease and how to protect from it.
IGLUS QUARTERLY, 2022
In this brief article, I look at the housing sector in parallel to local experiences of housing a... more In this brief article, I look at the housing sector in parallel to local experiences of housing and neighborhood self-building (autoconstruction) in Brazil and Tanzania. I argue that, despite significant differences, in both countries, low-income urban dwellers play a key role in the construction and maintenance of houses and neighborhoods that offer them shelter and livelihood protection. Often, the housing stock that low income urban dwellers build, within and outside organized community initiatives, represents a significant, if not the most important, source of housing provision for the urban poor in both countries. A new set of questions and grounded analytical methodologies can help elevate these important community roles and highlight innovative approaches from the ground up.
Urban Planning, 2022
Self-building is the prevalent mode of urban production in rapidly urbanizing African cities. Nat... more Self-building is the prevalent mode of urban production in rapidly urbanizing African cities. National and international policy frameworks, as well as popular discourse, still portray self-building as an informal and temporary fix for insufficient state investment-as the exception, rather than the rule. Meanwhile, emerging literature about the Global South draws from an analysis of processes, practices, spatialities, and lived experiences of urbanization and dwelling. This literature seeks to unveil how ordinary processes such as self-building unfold in different localities and realities, challenging the reluctance of government and private actors in recognizing self-building as a long-term mode of urban production. This article contributes to this literature through an ethnographic analysis of the oldest and most common modality of self-built houses in Tanzania-the Swahili house-and its unfolding in two traditional, centrally-located neighborhoods of Dar es Salaam. It emphasizes the home and dwelling aspirations, practices, and trajectories of a predominantly low-income population settling in the city. Based on the analysis, this article proposes that the self-building of Swahili houses and neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam represents a form of popular urbanization, characterized by long temporalities that simultaneously facilitate and are facilitated by affordable and incremental forms and processes of home building through residents' appropriation of their own territories. However, in the city's increasingly contested inner-city territories, top-down policy responses and large-scale, infrastructure-led urban development generate tensions and make such a popular form of self-building vulnerable to erasure and un-homing.
This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing a... more This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing and urban settlements and proposes that policy-driven transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices is more likely to facilitate inclusive urban production processes and cities. We frame urban production as occurring within locally established formal-informal interfaces in order to investigate on the ground practices associated to provision, permanence and adaptation to fast change. Focus is in the Makumbusho-Tandale wards of the Kinondoni district, in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa’s largest and most populous country, and where informality is a defining feature. In Dar es Salaam, about seventy percent of urban production occurs in unplanned areas. We present the initial elements of a typology of housing and urban production and practice in the area that draws from grounded analysis, and put forward an agenda for future research. ANALYZING HOUS...
This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in B... more This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in Brazil; in particular, those associated with state efforts to attract the private sector to participate in the design, finance, development and long-term management of infrastructure and housing provision systems. While the study’s focus is on adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the affordable housing sector, empirical research is based on the case study analysis of Casa Paulista Program, the first PPP for affordable housing delivery in the country, sponsored by the State Government of São Paulo and implemented in the central districts of the city of São Paulo, the state’s capital. Specific questions driving the research are twofold: in the first, I ask what were the characteristics of the Casa Paulista PPP model, and in the second, how public and private agents, including social groups, affected the evolution of the model. Permeating this analysis is the concern...
International Journal of Urban Sciences, 2020
Since the 1990s, the Tanzanian public housing authority, the National Housing Corporation (NHC), ... more Since the 1990s, the Tanzanian public housing authority, the National Housing Corporation (NHC), has been changing its goal, from prioritizing delivery of affordable housing, to becoming a leading commercial and residential real estate developer. This happens against a backdrop of market-based reform and the state’s growing reliance on private markets to support urban development. In this paper, we look at the impact of NHC’s new approach and its effect on housing production and every day practice in Dar es Salaam. The analysis is based on a case study of two new NHC middle to high-income development projects and housing practice in the neighbourhoods surrounding these projects. Analysis is informed by semi-structured interviews, and project and site investigation. Findings indicate that currently, NHC operates like a private corporation, prioritizing market-rate developments over low-income housing projects, and promoting segregated developments based on land value criteria, while also lacking protocols regarding its trickling down approach. High input costs and declining state subsidies are some of the factors mentioned as a challenge towards meeting the housing needs of moderate to low-income households. The paper contributes to the international debate concerning the state’s adoption of business-like approaches to housing production and the affordability crisis.
Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Sahara... more Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Saharan Africa, like in other countries and regions of the Global South, the new corona virus pandemic highlights a long lasting urban crisis. This crisis is manifested through a lack of water and sanitation, and adequate shelter, as well as food insecurity. Mitigating the risk and the effects of this pandemic in these poor communities must combine social isolation with protection of livelihoods through free access to clean water, adequate shelter, food security, and the provision of context-based information to local communities about the disease and how to protect from it. In this brief article, we argue that asking whether communities living in poor and precarious conditions can survive the isolation and social distancing that are required to address the corona virus crisis, is the wrong approach. Instead, the question to be asked should be how can these communities cope with these measures that will substantially disrupt their livelihoods on the one hand, but which are required to save lives on the other hand, as long as testing and contact tracing are not available. In the following paragraphs we draw from our knowledge of the conditions on the ground in Dar es Salaam, as well as experiences in other countries of the Global South, in order to discuss some possible solutions to ameliorate the effects of the Covid-19 crisis there. In Tanzania, with over 70% of the population living in unplanned settlements and 50% of the entire population being low income earners, critical thinking on how to counteract the pandemic is urgently needed. If the Corona virus pandemic has highlighted a healthcare crisis in more economically developed contexts, it also highlights an ongoing urban crisis in less developed contexts.
Anais to XVIII Enampur , 2019
Resumo: This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of h... more Resumo: This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing and urban settlements and proposes that policy-driven transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices is more likely to facilitate inclusive urban production processes and cities. We frame urban production as occurring within locally established formal-informal interfaces in order to investigate on the ground practices associated to provision, permanence and adaptation to fast change. Focus is in the Makumbusho-Tandale wards of the Kinondoni district, in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa's largest and most populous country, and where informality is a defining feature. In Dar es Salaam, about seventy percent of urban production occurs in unplanned areas. We present the initial elements of a typology of housing and urban production and practice in the area that draws from grounded analysis, and put forward an agenda for future research.
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2021
This paper evaluates the compatibility of public–private partnerships (PPP) for housing in Brazil... more This paper evaluates the compatibility of public–private partnerships (PPP) for housing in Brazil with the notion of the right to the city, enshrined in the Constitution. A 3-year investigation of the country’s first housing PPP, Casa Paulista, located in downtown São Paulo city, informs the analysis. Drawing from the international debate on the right to the city and its application in Brazil, I offer a definition of the term that transcends the notion of rights-based policy, and implies urban dwellers’ appropriation of urban production and city space. While failing to scale up centrally located housing delivery, the PPP facilitates a new housing regime marked by the decreased ability of citizens, particularly grassroots movements, to appropriate housing production, directly contradicting the right to the city ideal. Finally, I describe an outcome from this new regime—an ad hoc and opaque system of public land allocation for PPP housing developments.
This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in B... more This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in Brazil; in particular, those associated with state efforts to attract the private sector to participate in the design, finance, development and long-term management of infrastructure and housing provision systems. While the study's focus is on adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the affordable housing sector, empirical research is based on the case study analysis of Casa Paulista Program, the first PPP for affordable housing delivery in the country, sponsored by the State Government of São Paulo and implemented in the central districts of the city of São Paulo, the state's capital. Specific questions driving the research are twofold: in the first, I ask what were the characteristics of the Casa Paulista PPP model, and in the second, how public and private agents, including social groups, affected the evolution of the model. Permeating this analysis is the concern as to how housing provision through PPPs may affect the ability of local populations to access adequate housing and fully participate in city living, as demanded by social housing movements and urban reform advocates and predicted in Brazil's Federal Constitution, and rights-based urban policy at national and local levels. Findings indicate that the Casa Paulista model, while neither leveraging private capital nor scaling up housing production, facilitates rearrangements in the private local housing market, urban policy, and social relationships around housing provision. These efforts are successful only with support of the development and finance industries operating beyond the local scale. I argue that these new rearrangements support a publicly funded, privately managed model to facilitate predominantly residential real estate development projects of large scale and which are debt financed through long term agreements. This dynamic generates risk to society's ability to control urban transformation in the central city area and support preservation of a stock of public and private land where affordable housing development is currently prioritized, an outcome I describe as 'privatizing planning and socializing risk'.
This brief article examines the ramifications of adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP)... more This brief article examines the ramifications of adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the urban infrastructure and service sector. I focus on the debate concerning the efficacy and equity of PPPs and, particularly, the issue of risk. I first provide a definition of public-private partnerships and discuss how the literature concerning them has approached risk. I highlight the fact that public-private partnership proponents and critics alike are concerned with this question, albeit in very different ways. The mainstream management literature sets up a comprehensive list of risks associated with these structures so that these may be delimited for each project and addressed as efficiently as feasible to avoid cost increases. The political and economic literature focusing on such partnerships meanwhile, approaches the question of risk more broadly. These analysts outline the challenges that attend the PPP mechanism in comparison to other development alternatives, such as traditional procurement, and to traditional public sector provision of public goods and services. Of particular concern to scholars in this literature are the effects of public-private partnerships on popular participation in decision-making, on power sharing among groups and on the distribution of wealth. These investigators contend that, unchecked, these risks challenge the very premise that PPPs can more efficiently address a widening infrastructure gap. These concerns also work against regulatory frameworks founded on the principle that greater public participation and control in public decision-making can better address geographic service-related disparity and income inequality.
A matter of value: assessing the scope and effects of Tanzania’s national housing corporation’s development strategy on Dar es Salaam’s urban neighbourhoods, 2020
Real estate industry urban redevelopment housing policy informality low-income housing As East Af... more Real estate industry urban redevelopment housing policy informality low-income housing As East African cities experience rapid urbanization and population growth (OECD, 2017), access to affordable housing becomes a critical issue for research, practice, and construction of more sustainable and inclusive cities (UN Habitat, 2016). This happens against the backdrop of a shift in housing policy, from direct production to support for the expansion of private and semi-private (public-private) housing markets (Abdullahi & Azriyati, 2011). Marketization (Harris, 2015) refers to the growing reliance of nation states on the private sector to finance, build and manage urban infrastructure and services. Marketization involves the public sector' s adoption of corporate practices aiming at greater efficiency (Grimsey & Lewis, 2007). The connection between marketization and housing provision happened originally in Western Europe and the United States, where the loss of federal funding and the flexibilization of financing in the 1990s forced public
Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Sahara... more Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Saharan Africa, like in other countries and regions of the Global South, the new corona virus pandemic highlights a long lasting urban crisis. This crisis is manifested through a lack of water and sanitation, and adequate shelter, as well as food insecurity. Mitigating the risk and the effects of this pandemic in these poor communities must combine social isolation with protection of livelihoods through free access to clean water, adequate shelter, food security, and the provision of context-based information to local communities about the disease and how to protect from it.
IGLUS QUARTERLY, 2022
In this brief article, I look at the housing sector in parallel to local experiences of housing a... more In this brief article, I look at the housing sector in parallel to local experiences of housing and neighborhood self-building (autoconstruction) in Brazil and Tanzania. I argue that, despite significant differences, in both countries, low-income urban dwellers play a key role in the construction and maintenance of houses and neighborhoods that offer them shelter and livelihood protection. Often, the housing stock that low income urban dwellers build, within and outside organized community initiatives, represents a significant, if not the most important, source of housing provision for the urban poor in both countries. A new set of questions and grounded analytical methodologies can help elevate these important community roles and highlight innovative approaches from the ground up.
Urban Planning, 2022
Self-building is the prevalent mode of urban production in rapidly urbanizing African cities. Nat... more Self-building is the prevalent mode of urban production in rapidly urbanizing African cities. National and international policy frameworks, as well as popular discourse, still portray self-building as an informal and temporary fix for insufficient state investment-as the exception, rather than the rule. Meanwhile, emerging literature about the Global South draws from an analysis of processes, practices, spatialities, and lived experiences of urbanization and dwelling. This literature seeks to unveil how ordinary processes such as self-building unfold in different localities and realities, challenging the reluctance of government and private actors in recognizing self-building as a long-term mode of urban production. This article contributes to this literature through an ethnographic analysis of the oldest and most common modality of self-built houses in Tanzania-the Swahili house-and its unfolding in two traditional, centrally-located neighborhoods of Dar es Salaam. It emphasizes the home and dwelling aspirations, practices, and trajectories of a predominantly low-income population settling in the city. Based on the analysis, this article proposes that the self-building of Swahili houses and neighborhoods in Dar es Salaam represents a form of popular urbanization, characterized by long temporalities that simultaneously facilitate and are facilitated by affordable and incremental forms and processes of home building through residents' appropriation of their own territories. However, in the city's increasingly contested inner-city territories, top-down policy responses and large-scale, infrastructure-led urban development generate tensions and make such a popular form of self-building vulnerable to erasure and un-homing.
This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing a... more This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing and urban settlements and proposes that policy-driven transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices is more likely to facilitate inclusive urban production processes and cities. We frame urban production as occurring within locally established formal-informal interfaces in order to investigate on the ground practices associated to provision, permanence and adaptation to fast change. Focus is in the Makumbusho-Tandale wards of the Kinondoni district, in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa’s largest and most populous country, and where informality is a defining feature. In Dar es Salaam, about seventy percent of urban production occurs in unplanned areas. We present the initial elements of a typology of housing and urban production and practice in the area that draws from grounded analysis, and put forward an agenda for future research. ANALYZING HOUS...
This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in B... more This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in Brazil; in particular, those associated with state efforts to attract the private sector to participate in the design, finance, development and long-term management of infrastructure and housing provision systems. While the study’s focus is on adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the affordable housing sector, empirical research is based on the case study analysis of Casa Paulista Program, the first PPP for affordable housing delivery in the country, sponsored by the State Government of São Paulo and implemented in the central districts of the city of São Paulo, the state’s capital. Specific questions driving the research are twofold: in the first, I ask what were the characteristics of the Casa Paulista PPP model, and in the second, how public and private agents, including social groups, affected the evolution of the model. Permeating this analysis is the concern...
International Journal of Urban Sciences, 2020
Since the 1990s, the Tanzanian public housing authority, the National Housing Corporation (NHC), ... more Since the 1990s, the Tanzanian public housing authority, the National Housing Corporation (NHC), has been changing its goal, from prioritizing delivery of affordable housing, to becoming a leading commercial and residential real estate developer. This happens against a backdrop of market-based reform and the state’s growing reliance on private markets to support urban development. In this paper, we look at the impact of NHC’s new approach and its effect on housing production and every day practice in Dar es Salaam. The analysis is based on a case study of two new NHC middle to high-income development projects and housing practice in the neighbourhoods surrounding these projects. Analysis is informed by semi-structured interviews, and project and site investigation. Findings indicate that currently, NHC operates like a private corporation, prioritizing market-rate developments over low-income housing projects, and promoting segregated developments based on land value criteria, while also lacking protocols regarding its trickling down approach. High input costs and declining state subsidies are some of the factors mentioned as a challenge towards meeting the housing needs of moderate to low-income households. The paper contributes to the international debate concerning the state’s adoption of business-like approaches to housing production and the affordability crisis.
Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Sahara... more Originally posted by the African Center for Cities In poor and informal communities of Sub-Saharan Africa, like in other countries and regions of the Global South, the new corona virus pandemic highlights a long lasting urban crisis. This crisis is manifested through a lack of water and sanitation, and adequate shelter, as well as food insecurity. Mitigating the risk and the effects of this pandemic in these poor communities must combine social isolation with protection of livelihoods through free access to clean water, adequate shelter, food security, and the provision of context-based information to local communities about the disease and how to protect from it. In this brief article, we argue that asking whether communities living in poor and precarious conditions can survive the isolation and social distancing that are required to address the corona virus crisis, is the wrong approach. Instead, the question to be asked should be how can these communities cope with these measures that will substantially disrupt their livelihoods on the one hand, but which are required to save lives on the other hand, as long as testing and contact tracing are not available. In the following paragraphs we draw from our knowledge of the conditions on the ground in Dar es Salaam, as well as experiences in other countries of the Global South, in order to discuss some possible solutions to ameliorate the effects of the Covid-19 crisis there. In Tanzania, with over 70% of the population living in unplanned settlements and 50% of the entire population being low income earners, critical thinking on how to counteract the pandemic is urgently needed. If the Corona virus pandemic has highlighted a healthcare crisis in more economically developed contexts, it also highlights an ongoing urban crisis in less developed contexts.
Anais to XVIII Enampur , 2019
Resumo: This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of h... more Resumo: This paper challenges policy discourse prioritizing formalization and regularization of housing and urban settlements and proposes that policy-driven transformation grounded on actually existing local systems and practices is more likely to facilitate inclusive urban production processes and cities. We frame urban production as occurring within locally established formal-informal interfaces in order to investigate on the ground practices associated to provision, permanence and adaptation to fast change. Focus is in the Makumbusho-Tandale wards of the Kinondoni district, in the city of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, East Africa's largest and most populous country, and where informality is a defining feature. In Dar es Salaam, about seventy percent of urban production occurs in unplanned areas. We present the initial elements of a typology of housing and urban production and practice in the area that draws from grounded analysis, and put forward an agenda for future research.
Journal of Urban Affairs, 2021
This paper evaluates the compatibility of public–private partnerships (PPP) for housing in Brazil... more This paper evaluates the compatibility of public–private partnerships (PPP) for housing in Brazil with the notion of the right to the city, enshrined in the Constitution. A 3-year investigation of the country’s first housing PPP, Casa Paulista, located in downtown São Paulo city, informs the analysis. Drawing from the international debate on the right to the city and its application in Brazil, I offer a definition of the term that transcends the notion of rights-based policy, and implies urban dwellers’ appropriation of urban production and city space. While failing to scale up centrally located housing delivery, the PPP facilitates a new housing regime marked by the decreased ability of citizens, particularly grassroots movements, to appropriate housing production, directly contradicting the right to the city ideal. Finally, I describe an outcome from this new regime—an ad hoc and opaque system of public land allocation for PPP housing developments.
This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in B... more This dissertation analyzes contemporary transformations in urban policy and space production in Brazil; in particular, those associated with state efforts to attract the private sector to participate in the design, finance, development and long-term management of infrastructure and housing provision systems. While the study's focus is on adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the affordable housing sector, empirical research is based on the case study analysis of Casa Paulista Program, the first PPP for affordable housing delivery in the country, sponsored by the State Government of São Paulo and implemented in the central districts of the city of São Paulo, the state's capital. Specific questions driving the research are twofold: in the first, I ask what were the characteristics of the Casa Paulista PPP model, and in the second, how public and private agents, including social groups, affected the evolution of the model. Permeating this analysis is the concern as to how housing provision through PPPs may affect the ability of local populations to access adequate housing and fully participate in city living, as demanded by social housing movements and urban reform advocates and predicted in Brazil's Federal Constitution, and rights-based urban policy at national and local levels. Findings indicate that the Casa Paulista model, while neither leveraging private capital nor scaling up housing production, facilitates rearrangements in the private local housing market, urban policy, and social relationships around housing provision. These efforts are successful only with support of the development and finance industries operating beyond the local scale. I argue that these new rearrangements support a publicly funded, privately managed model to facilitate predominantly residential real estate development projects of large scale and which are debt financed through long term agreements. This dynamic generates risk to society's ability to control urban transformation in the central city area and support preservation of a stock of public and private land where affordable housing development is currently prioritized, an outcome I describe as 'privatizing planning and socializing risk'.
This brief article examines the ramifications of adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP)... more This brief article examines the ramifications of adoption of the public-private partnership (PPP) mechanism in the urban infrastructure and service sector. I focus on the debate concerning the efficacy and equity of PPPs and, particularly, the issue of risk. I first provide a definition of public-private partnerships and discuss how the literature concerning them has approached risk. I highlight the fact that public-private partnership proponents and critics alike are concerned with this question, albeit in very different ways. The mainstream management literature sets up a comprehensive list of risks associated with these structures so that these may be delimited for each project and addressed as efficiently as feasible to avoid cost increases. The political and economic literature focusing on such partnerships meanwhile, approaches the question of risk more broadly. These analysts outline the challenges that attend the PPP mechanism in comparison to other development alternatives, such as traditional procurement, and to traditional public sector provision of public goods and services. Of particular concern to scholars in this literature are the effects of public-private partnerships on popular participation in decision-making, on power sharing among groups and on the distribution of wealth. These investigators contend that, unchecked, these risks challenge the very premise that PPPs can more efficiently address a widening infrastructure gap. These concerns also work against regulatory frameworks founded on the principle that greater public participation and control in public decision-making can better address geographic service-related disparity and income inequality.