Housing and Human Settlements in a World of Change

The housing challenge is becoming increasingly recognised in international policy discussions1; however, its broader links to the processes of migration, climate change, and economic globalisation are not yet fully understood. Despite the fact that, in principle, housing is recognised as a basic human right and is essential for human development, in practice, securing safe and adequate hous-ing for everyone remains a major global development challenge of the 21stcentu-ry –as pointed out in the two forewords by respectively El Sioufi and Rolnik. Issues associated with housing, such as its scarcity (including the lack of acces-sible land), affordability and quality, are persistent but changing in magnitude, over time. This book aims to situate housing in relation to the processes of global transformation. In this sense, it highlights the processes of economic globalisa-tion, migration, and climate change as three major dynamics in relation to the global housing crisis. Obviously, there are also further global transformations in place but they are either not yet as widely discussed in terms of their effects on housing (such as information and communication technology) or they include very particular local forms and effects (such as demographic changes). This book is an attempt to identify the influencing dynamics of the three key trans-formation processes. As such, it does not discuss housing in isolation but rather takes a holistic perspective toward housing in a world that is changing on both local and global scales. Over the last twenty years, the process of economic globalisation has result-ed in significant changes that have not only affected livelihoods in human settlements and reshaped the institutional settings of a housing delivery that is often framed under neo-liberal policies and so-called enablement approaches but has also turned housing into a product that is traded under a system of globally operated finance. This, the commodification of housing largely affects the overall housing process (see Rolniks’ contribution in the foreword for an elaboration). Apart from this financialisation process of housing, rural-urban migration as well as the upsurge in forced migration across international borders (due to crises, or economic or environmental reasons) are also emerging issues which have implications for cities and human settlements (UN-Habitat 2016).Independent of these diverse push factors, the process of migration is directly resulting in rapid urbanisation, globally. This process is also causing the spatial expansion of urban settlements through the annexation and reclassification of rural areas to make more space for housing provision for a growing urbanpopu-lation. However, the question is whether these changes are addressing the housing needs of migrants and how these processes are taking place in different con-texts. Apart from the two dynamics of migration and economic globalisation, this book also highlights the influence of climate change. The question, here, is whether climate change and its direct link with housing and human settlements is a persistent or emerging issue. This book seeks to highlight how a changing climate is affecting the housing process and how human settlements are respond-ing through everyday practice and policies. The three global trends discussed here (economic globalisation, migration and climate change) apply to developing, transitional and developed countries alike but are most strongly discussed in relation to developing countries, which are severely affected but have addressed these issues only to a limited degree in spite of their relevance. This is reflected in this book in the number of chapters that contextualise the three global dynamics of economic globalisation, migration and climate change in relation to hous-ing in developing and transitional countries across diverse regions world wide.This chapter raises three different but interlinked questions related to the aforementioned dynamics. These questions are: (i) What outcomes have eco-nomic globalisation and related neo-liberal policies and “enabling” ideas brought to the ground to address the issue of housing over the last two decades? (ii) How are the dynamics of migration reshaping the urban housing provision? And (iii) How are human settlements able to respond with different housing approaches to extreme climate events? To frame the above questions, this chapter draws on various sources to understand the housing processes in relation to the impacts of the three global dynamics addressed in this book. Later, this chapter contextual-ises the theoretical discourses by reflecting on the case studies outlined in the following chapters of this book.

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https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47124