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

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

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 So...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of urban and regional research Vol. 47; no. 1; pp. 23 - 38
Main Author: Castro, Brianna
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Chichester, UK John Wiley & Sons, Ltd 01-01-2023
Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Subjects:
Case studies
Claims making
Confusion
Developing countries
development
Evictions
global South
Governance
informality
Lagos
Land tenure
LDCs
Megacities
Nigeria
Residents
Urban development
urban governance
Urban growth
Urban sprawl
Waterfronts
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Summary: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.
Bibliography:I thank Matthew Desmond, Diane Davis, Rob Sampson, Mo Torres, Andreja Siliunas, Adam Travis and Jasmin Sandelson for comments on an early draft version of this article. I also thank the Justice and Empowerment Initiative and Slumdwellers International for their research support and Aderemi Adedoyin for his research assistantship throughout the fieldwork, as well as the residents of Otodo Gbame who welcomed me into their homes and allowed me to bear witness to their housing struggle. This research was led by principal investigator Matthew Desmond and funded by the National Science Foundation (grant number #1520103) and the Hutchins Center at Harvard University.
ISSN:0309-1317
1468-2427
DOI:10.1111/1468-2427.13152