Massey Documents by Type

Permanent URI for this communityhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/294

Browse

Subject: search.filters.subject.Squatter settlements

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Squatting problems in Indonesia : a research study presented to the Institute of Development Studies, Massey University, Palmerston North - New Zealand in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Philosophy
    (Massey University, 1994) Buldansyah, Mochamad Badr
    Most of urban dwellers in developing countries have been squatting too long. This is a phenomenon also characteristic of Indonesia. Big cities like Jakarta and Surabaya attract rural people who migrate because of poverty pressure in rural areas. The national development programs in Indonesia have resulted in extraordinary economic growth. However, at the same time, these development policies have created some social imbalances which in turn have lead to and maintained the squatter settlement problem in the cities. This research finds that there are some policies that can be carried out in order to reduce these problems. Possible solutions are derived from both direct and indirect actions. Direct solutions should be associated with the squatters themselves, in which the policies are aimed to improve their condition, economically and socially. Finally, indirect solutions should be addressed to rural development and specifically, the control of unoccupied land. All in all, policies should be carried out both in urban areas where the problem of squatting exists and in the rural areas, being the main source of the problem.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The urban squatter question : squatting, housing and urbanization in Suva, Fiji : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Geography at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1978) Walsh, Allen Crosbie
    The proliferation and apparent intransience of urban squatter settlements in Third World countries have produced numerous explanations of their cause, nature and solution. In Fiji, it is estimated that nearly one-fifth of the population of the Suva Urban Area were squatters in 1976 and that squatter numbers, in recent years, have increased by over 10 percent annually. These increases have occurred despite development plan objectives which aim to reduce regional and class disparities and a public housing programme which has housed about one-fifth of the urban area's population since the late 1950s. In the early 1960s many scholars supported the view that squatters were 'marginal' to the life of the city and this view is still held by many administrators, in Fiji and elsewhere. Studies commencing in the mid 1960s, however, have led to a revision of opinions on squatter marginality and the emergence of two major schools of thought among scholars. The Dependency School considers squatting a product of the type of urbanization experienced by Third World countries and sees no solution short of major changes to the 'system'; the Progressive Development (or Progressive Housing) School, on the other hand, sees squatting as a housing problem caused by the rate of Third World urbanization and inappropriate public housing programmes. The latter School advocates the encouragement of self-help activities among the poor to close the gap between housing supply and demand. The public housing programme in Fiji has been influenced by such arguments and during recent years there has been some official support for site and service, squatter upgrading and core housing schemes. The present work proceeds from a statement of major theoretical questions derived from the literature, and a description of urbanization and the housing situation in Fiji, to test the assumptions of the Marginality, Dependency and Progressive Development Schools. Data were obtained on urbanization and housing in Fiji, and sample surveys were conducted among Fijian and Indian squatters and other low-income households in Suva City and Urban Area in 1976. The data were used to consider six propositions which were tested via 36 hypotheses; comparisons were made between ethnic, squatter and other low-income, and city and urban area households. The propositions were found to be substantially correct. Squatter behaviour was shown to be as modern and as urban as the behaviour of other low-income people, and households with 'modern' attributes tended to be more 'successful' in the city. Modern and traditional behaviour, however, were not found to be antithetical and, at least among Fijians, the households which were the most traditional tended to be those which were most 'successful.' Squatters were also shown to make a positive contribution to the economy of the city and to be no more an obstacle to rational urban land use than many other land users. The views of the Marginality School were therefore found wanting. Squatters were shown to participate in self-help activities which led to increasing adequacy in housing. The squatter residential environment was found to permit greater all round flexibility than official public housing and was therefore considered more appropriate for poor households which relied heavily on the use of the residential environment for supplementary informal economic activities and kinship networks. In particular, squatting was found to allow Fijians and Indians to adopt strategies of survival and improvement based on their respective cultural mores. Some support was therefore provided for the views of the Progressive Development School. The levels of improvement, however, were found to be generally insufficient and to involve too few households to accept these views without reservation. Improvements occurred among more modern households, among owner-occupiers and those with some security uf tenure as claimed by the Progressive Development School, but income was found to be the most critical variable. Income increased among Fijians by accretions of kin and among Indians by accretions of time, but few households had sufficient income to permit them to alter significantly their position in society or to ensure minimally adequate housing. The views of the Dependency School that squatting is a residential manifestation of poverty, and not a housing problem as such, were therefore accepted. In accepting this explanation of the causes and nature of squatting, however, the writer maintained that practical measures advanced by the Progressive Development School could lead, if not to the solution of the problem, at least to its improvement. At the macro level, the solution to the urban squatter question in Fiji was seen to lie in the implementation of the egalitarian proposals of the VIth Development Plan, a change in Fiji's relations with other countries, and a reassessment of the position of the urban poor. At the micro level, much improvement can be achieved by the formulation of a housing policy which gives close attention to the needs and aspirations of squatters indicated in the present study. The distinction between macro and micro level 'solutions' is seen to offer a compromise position between the viewpoints of the two most prominent schools of thought on the urban squatter question.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The strategy of urban life : reinventing practice in the disenchanted world : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Anthropology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1987) Mahar, Cheleen
    The economic practice of a Mexican squatter settlement provides the focus for this study. The thesis argues that traditional structures of individual and community have been transformed in squatter settlements to function as economic structures influenced by the logic of capitalism. Using a method deriving from Bourdieu's ethnographic account of field, habitus and strategy, the varied and complex struggles for economic and social survival among Oaxacan squatter residents are examined. It is contended that a method which overcomes the idealist limitations of interactionist theory, and the structuralist limitations of functionalist theory, as well as the determinism of marxist theory is necessary. Using Bourdieu's method, a dialectical analysis examines the forms of capital, the struggles for position, and the economic practices in the fields of economics, social relations and community politics. The study concludes with a critique of the method.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Social capital and cohesive urban communities : examining the impact of culture, religion and other lived experience on community development processes in informal and squatter settlements in Fiji : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters degree in Philosophy at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2011) Yates, Kirkland Ronald
    Urbanisation of Pacific cities is causing substantial growth in squatter settlements, particularly in Fiji. This growth in squatter settlements is placing government resources under stress in terms of affordable housing solutions and extension of essential services on government capacities. Furthermore, unregulated urbanisation processes are leaving many squatter settlements living below the poverty line and placing settlers increasingly under survival pressures. Many have studied the various poverty and social dynamics affecting squatter settlements in Fiji as well as the government and non-government institutional responses to these situations. This thesis addresses how the urban poor in settlements marshal the necessary resources to organise inclusive and effectual communities that can influence public policy directions on issues that affect them. The assumption in this thesis considers that squatters face significant cultural and ideological barriers that either support or block their ability to function adequately in their challenging settings. Furthermore, this thesis explores the impacts of culture, religion and lived experiences on urban community development processes and how these experiences may affect the socio-economic well-being of community members. This research was based on primary data collection from a sample of eighteen householders across three contrasting squatter settlements in Suva, Fiji, during 2008. Householders were surveyed with application of a structured and internationally authenticated social capital-integrated questionnaire. The survey was used to investigate settlers‟ perceptions of the various organisational and social cohesion indicators in communities considered necessary to support community functioning. Of particular interest was the relative significance and importance of key social capital indicators. Social capital was seen as prerequisite for community development in a Fijian, Indo-Fijian and an integrated settlement. This thesis investigated how people might work together to sustain socially cohesive communities. The community organisational and interactive data indicators were analysed to compare the capacity assessment results and presented in a visual format to provide a „snapshot in time‟ of the status of community relations in the squatter settlements studied. It is contended that this approach could present a potential application for communities, government institutions and development practitioners to employ as an instrument to monitor the progress of community capacity development in future.