Louisa Vogiazides – ‘Legal Empowerment Of The Poor’ Versus ‘Right To The City’ Implications For Access To Housing In Urban Africa

diva-portal 2012. This paper compares the major arguments found in the Legal Empowerment of the Poor (LEP) and the Right to the City discourses with particular reference to housing in urban Africa. After examining the major advocates, arguments and critiques associated with each discourse, it argues that they are based on two distinct sets of ideological and normative principles, with LEP being inspired by classical liberal ideas and Right to the City by Marxist thought. Consistent with these different ideological backgrounds, the two discourses
have different views on access to housing in urban Africa, with LEP proposing ownership formalisation and market inclusion as a solution to lack of access to adequate and affordable housing, while Right to the City calls for increased state intervention in housing provision. The paper concludes, however, that the different ideological backgrounds do not necessarily mean their policy recommendations are incompatible, and calls for further research into the influence of the two discourses on housing policies in African cities.

Read more (PDF-format): http://www.diva-portal.org/FULLTEXT01.pdf