Urban Housing Policies and Approaches in a Changing Asian Context
Major changes are taking place in Asia, both at the macro level and “on the ground”. Liberalisation of the economy, strategic readjustment, the tourist and manufacturing boom and large scale demographic changes are creating both beneficiaries and victims. All this is having a major effect on housing conditions and delivery systems. However, formal sector policies and approaches to the housing issue remain committed, in theory, to the post-1976 Habitat conference recommendations, many of which have been reinforced by Habitat II in 1996. Policies built around these recommendations have seldom, if ever, worked.
This book tries to understand the causes of this colossal failure and, at the same time, look into the future. To do this, the author draws not only on his own research work on development processes in Asian cities, but also on his conversations and interaction with Asian professionals, NGO leaders, government servants and community activists and members. The book argues that unless.a space is created and institutionalised for an equitable interaction between the various actors of the urban development drama, appropriate policy development and its implementation will not be possible.