ESF/N-AERUS International Workshop Leuven and Brussels, Belgium, 23-26 May 2001 COPING WITH INFORMALITY AND ILLEGALITY IN HUMAN SETTLEMENTS IN DEVELOPING CITIES CALL FOR PAPERS

The 1999 Venice ESF N-AERUS International Workshop highlighted the concepts and paradigms of urban management in developing countries. During the 2000 Geneva ESF N-AERUS International Workshop, the question was debated of cities of the South: sustainable for whom ? The 2001 Leuven-Brussels ESF N-AERUS International Workshop will analyse the foundations, the content and the characteristics of public policies with regard to informality and illegality in human settlements. For the last three decades - that is to say since the expansion of 'irregular' settlements has been perceived as a lasting structural phenomenon - the debate on housing policy insistently refers to the question of the informality and illegality of human settlements, without reaching any satisfying solution. For a long time it appeared that, in order to get rid of this problem, it would have been sufficient to combine measures of repression of illegal occupations, of prevention, of tenure regularisation and of large-scale land delivery to the poor. Because informality and illegality are usually understood to be the result of processes, basing an approach on one or the other does not take into account the cultural and physical dimensions of urban form, which is essential to evaluate the relevance of these measures. In any event, the results have been limited and disappointing. In many developing cities, the map of illegality - corresponding to a large extent to that of poverty - indicates a steady sprawling of the phenomenon, particularly at the periphery of cities, and this in spite of a slackening of their demographic growth and the emergence of governments which are more sensitive to the aspirations of civil society. The question of the dealing with informality and illegality related to land and planning remains to be answered: how can city authorities cope with informality and illegality in urban settlements and housing that accommodate the majority of the population of cities in developing countries? In order to tackle this issue it is necessary to question the actual nature of this informality and illegality. The general issue of informality (of activities, employment, markets, neighbourhoods, settlements, housing) has given rise to a great deal of literature, at least during the last three decades. Regarding urban management, it has produced various adjustments and compromises. This does not apply to illegality, as if it posed a series of politically embarrassing problems which city authorities are helpless to address, such as the unequal access to resources, exclusion and repression. Proposals for papers or posters are invited that respond to the issues identified in the draft background paper sent out to all N-AERUS members in early December and reproduced here. It is intended that these issues will be debated during the International Workshop. Proposals will be dealt with as follows: Abstracts of proposed papers submitted to workshop2001@naerus.net by 1 March Authors of selected papers notified by 14 March Abstracts of the selected papers placed on the workshop website by 14 March Completed papers submitted by 13 April All papers placed on the website by 20 April Proposals for posters submitted to workshop2001@naerus.net by 1 March Completed posters brought to the International Workshop The debates during the International Workshop will be organised in parallel thematic sessions and carried into the last day's plenary session. In the thematic sessions, papers will be introduced and discussed with the assumption that the relevant papers have already been read from the website by those taking part. The themes of the sessions will be decided after abstracts for papers have been submitted. Note that, as soon as they are submitted, completed papers will be placed on the website http://www.naerus.net/workshop2001/index.html Contributors are invited to submit a 1000 character abstract (1 page) in English, French or Spanish as soon as possible but not later than 1 March 2001 to the following email address: workshop2001@naerus.net Authors whose abstract is accepted, will be notified starting March 14 as to details of paper and poster preparation format.

CALL FOR PAPERS ISSUES FOR DEBATE REPORTS FROM WORKING GROUPS WORKSHOP PAPERS ORGANISATION OF THE WORKSHOP CONTACTS

N-AERUS: Network-Association of European Researchers on Urbanisation in the South
http://www.naerus.net