Public Policies and Legal Practices toward Informal Settlements in the Middle East and Egypt

Transcription

1 European University Institute Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Workshop 4 Public Policies and Legal Practices toward Informal Settlements in the Middle East and Egypt directed by Eric Denis Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Université Paris VII, France eric.denis@paris7.jussieu.fr Myriam Ababsa Institut Français du Proche-Orient (IFPO), Amman, Jordan m.ababsa@ifporient.org Workshop abstract Whereas urban informality in developing countries has been widely studied, the Middle East has somehow remained neglected compared to Latin American and African and Asian countries, especially with regard to the anthropology of daily practices of acquiring and claiming land, and of titling a land settlement. Our project concerns the legal practices toward informal settlements in the Middle East and Egypt. It is a twofold endeavor. First, to investigate the public policies toward informal settlements in the Middle East, with special focus on regularization processes and/or upgrading of infrastructure. Secondly, to analyze the legal practices associated to property: definition, transaction and contestation. In both cases, we will focus on the legal dimension of housing, that includes cadaster operations and land titling. How do the various social actors involved NGO, civil servants, owners, intermediaries, squatters interpret the law in order to regularize, register or claim their 'properties'? How do the States deal with the tribal law (especially the "hujja" contracts, that are not legal but give a base for asserting ownership before a Court, and that are widely spread in the region)? The proposed workshop will bring together an international group of scholars from the various fields of the social sciences (legal studies, political science, geography, anthropology, and history), interested in legal practices and social interactions regarding urban informality. 9 th MRM Meeting 2008 WS n 4 - Description Page 1 of 6

2 Workshop description Whereas urban informality in developing countries has been widely studied, the Middle East has remained somehow neglected compared to Latin American, African and Asian countries, especially with regard to the anthropology of daily practices of acquiring and claiming land, and of titling a land settlement. This is quite surprising given the numerous public policies launched in the past three decades in Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon in order to limit the huge informal urban sprawl around capitals and main cities, that affects roughly half of the urban land. These policies included a wide a range of measures, from demolition and denying access to public services, to upgrading and regularization procedures. They were highly influenced by academic work, as interpreted by the World Bank. Public Policies toward informal settlements In the 1960's Janice Perlman and Manuel Castells adapted the Chicago School of urban sociology concepts to Latin American countries experimenting urban transition and slums sprawl. They stressed the view that the urban poor were not marginalized people excluded from society, but rather that they were too well integrated into society, only to be economically exploited, politically repressed, and culturally excluded (Perlman, 1976 ; Castells, 1977 ; Alsayyad, Roy, 2004). In Peru, John Turner was the first to propose upgrading policies that integrated inhabitant to each step of the process, in order to learn craftwork and be able to buy their dwelling supported by long term loan. It was conceived as a guarantee for replication and sustainability of upgrading pilot projects. This theory was widely implemented by the World Bank in South America, India and Africa and Asia. Following Hernando De Soto liberal theory that recommended land titling and access to property as a guarantee for future loans in a global development process, land titling became a priority within UNDP s development programs (Soto, 1989 ; Soto, 2000). In the Middle East (Jordan, Syria and Egypt), the states delayed such World Bank programs for fear that it threatens their legitimacy. Accordingly, it was only implemented in the 1980 s and only through experimental programs. With the passing of time theses upgrading programs have also included the regularization of informal settlements, at least on the paper presentation as they attempt to cope with participation approach. In the Middle East, most of the academic work about urban informality has dealt with forced migrations (Akbar, 1988 ; Ababsa, 2002 ; Harb el Kak, 2004), rural exodus and metropolitan extension, especially for Cairo (Denis, 2006 ; Haenni, 2005 ; Hoodfar, 1997). The political dimension of the control over refugees camps and informal settlement as a hotbed of the emergence of political contestation movements and Islamic extremism were mostly studied by scholars (Brown, 1989 ; Singerman, 1995). Singerman (1995) argue that illegal urban dynamic has to be analyzed as a combination of daily informal politic acts, in the same way Bayat (1997) researches emphasis the quiet encroachment of the poor in Teheran. Nezzar Alsayyed established a comparison between urban informality sprawl in South America and the Middle East. According to him, the main difference was not due to the existence of different mechanisms of land-market operation, but relies on cultural specificities. While urban informality in Latin America normally engaged organized political affiliation and established a reciprocal relation between squatters groups and the state, in the Middle East, it was the relative depoliticization of such processes that best guaranteed the prospects of the urban poor. Land invasion are more likely to occur under condition of political change in Latin America, but in the Middle East such occupations were 9 th MRM Meeting 2008 WS n 4 - Description Page 2 of 6

3 more likely to occur during times of economic transformation (Alsayyed, 2004: 14). In the Middle East, he argued, the political culture of governance is more based on a communal, client-based approach. Such institutional actors as the State, the World Bank, UNRWA, etc. play fundamental roles in the conception and implementation of public policies toward informal settlements, and much more so than NGO and local associations. Legal daily practices toward and in informal settlements Never the less, on a daily basis, social actors try to negotiate their accession to property through several types of legal practices. We will focus on them. The study of legal practices is diverse. Mainly, there is a legal pluralistic tradition, that underlines the coexistence of multiple laws apart from state law on the one hand, and the praxeological approach that deals with concrete uses of the legal reference on the other. The legal pluralistic tradition is against all idea of state centralization of the law. It underlines several autonomous social fields that also produce legal rules. In this perspective, the State itself is only one of the social fields. But instead of analyzing this dichotomy of the law, it might be better to suggest a shift of the point of view. First to study the social group that produces the State norms, second to analyze how all social actors understand their legal environment and deal with it, playing with a multiplicity of social norms of reference and not only with a single law. Objectives of the workshop Our project attempts to analyze the legal practices toward informal settlements in the Middle East and Egypt. It is a twofold endeavor. First, to investigate the public policies toward informal settlements in the Middle East, with special focus on regularization processes and/or upgrading of infrastructure. Secondly, to analyze the legal practices associated to deals about property : definition, transaction and contestation. In both cases, we will focus on the legal dimension of housing that includes cadastre operations and land titling. How the fundamental right to housing and property transfer are guarantees for the poor dwellers of the slums and informal settlements in Cairo, Amman, Damascus and Beirut? How do the various social actors involved NGO, civil servants, owners, intermediaries, squatters interpret the law in order to regularize, register or claim their 'property'? How do the States deal with the tribal law (especially the "hujja" contracts, that are not legal but gives a base for asserting ownership in the Court, and that are widely spread in the region)? The proposed workshop will bring together an international group of scholars from the various fields of the social sciences (legal studies, political science, geography, anthropology, and history), interested in legal practices and social interactions regarding urban informality. Contributions with precise case studies in Middle East and Egypt are widely welcomed. Bibbliography General References about Urban Informality Alsayyad N., Roy, A. (ed.), 2004, Urban Informality. Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia, Lanham, Maryland, Lexington Books. Castells M., 1997, The Power of Identity : Economy, Society and Culture, Oxford, Blackwell. 9 th MRM Meeting 2008 WS n 4 - Description Page 3 of 6

4 De Soto, H., 1989, The Other Path : The Invisible Revolution in the Third World, London, I.B. Taurus. De Soto, H., 2000, The Mystery of Capital : Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else, New York, Basic Books. Durand-Lasserve, A, Royston L., 2002, Holding Their Ground Secure Land Tenure for the Urban Poor in Developing Countries, London, Earthscan Publications Ltd. Fernandes, E., Varley, A., 1998, Illegal Cities : Law and Urban Change in Developing Countries, London, Zed Books. Hasan, A., 2000, Housing for the Poor : Failure of Formal Sector Strategy, Karachi, City Press. Marcuse P., Van Kempen, M., 1999, Globalizing Cities : a New Spatial Order? London, Blackwell. Payne, G., 2002, Land, Rights and Innovation : Improving Tenure Security for the Urban Poor, London, ITDG Publishing. References about Urban Informality in the Middle East and Egypt Akbar, J., 1988, Crisis in the Built Environment : The Case of the Muslim City, Singapore : Concept Media Pte Ltd. Bonine, M.E., 1997, Population, Poverty, and Politics in Middle East Cities, Gainesville: University of Florida Press. Brown, K., et al., 1989, Urban Crisis and Social Movements in the Middle East, Paris, L Harmattan. Denis, E., 2006, Coordination : Villes et urbanisation des provinces égyptiennes : vers la ruralopolis. Collection Kalam, Paris/Le Caire, Khartala/CEDEJ, 590 p. Denis, E., Bayat A., 2000, 2000, avec A. Bayat, "Who is afraid of ashwaiyyat? Urban change and politics in Egypt", Environment & Urbanization, vol.12, n 2, Dupret B., 2006, Le Jugement en action. Ethnométhodologie du droit, de la morale et de la justice en Egypte, Genève, Librairie Droz. El Kadi, G., 1987, L urbanisation spontanée au Caire, Tours, Fascicule de recherche d Urbama, n 18. Haenni, P., 2005, L ordre des caïds. Conjurer la dissidence urbaine au Caire, Paris : Karthala/Cedej. Harb el Kak., M., 1996, Politiques urbaines dans la banlieue-sud de Beyrouth, Cahier du CERMOC, n 14. Hoodfar, H., 1997, Between Marriage and the Market : Intimate Politics and Survival in Cairo, Berkeley, University of California Press. Meyer, G., 1989, Kairo. Entwicklungsprobleme einer Metropole der Dritten Welt, Cologne, Aulis Verlag Deubner. Norton, R. (ed.), 1995, Civil Society in the Middle East, vol. 1&2, Leiden: E.J. Brill. Razzaz, O., 1991, Law, Urban Land Tenure, and Property Disputes in Contested Settlements : The Case of Jordan, doctorat en planification urbaine, Harvard University, 336 p. 9 th MRM Meeting 2008 WS n 4 - Description Page 4 of 6

5 Signoles, P., El Kadi G., Sidi Boumedine, R., 1999, L urbain dans le monde arabe : politique, instruments et acteurs, Paris, CNRS éditions. Singerman, D., 1995, Avenues of Participation : Family, Politics and Networks in Urban Quarters of Cairo, Princeton, Princeton University Press. Soliman, A. M., 2004, A possible Way Out: Formalizing Housing Informality in Egyptian Cities, University Press of America, Maryland, Oxford, 289 p. Ziadeh, F.J., 1979, Property Law in the Arab World, London, Graham and Trotman. Directors individual paper abstracts Who Want Urban Land Titling? Eric Denis Public authorities approaches of the illegal settlement seem changing in most of the Middle East and Egypt metropolis in the context of economic liberalization and State adjustment. Apparently, coercive and neglecting way of dealing with popular suburbs is replaced by more integrative politics. Changes concern firstly the recognition that illegal settlements are the common condition of the ordinary urban population, sometime the majority of them. In the context of economic liberal reform, it s admitted that there is no other way than recognizing and considering popular suburb as a market and a légitime part of the metropolis. Of course those objective are mixed with the perceived necessity to reinserted the public authority in suburbs which is no longer impossible to neglect and leaving them growing on their own and with the support of Islamic charitable trust contesting state power. Here is the growing discrepancy between politic and economic liberalization. I said apparent reform because we should inquiry the reality of those new approaches, such as participation or land titling, beside the fact that they are widely displayed and object of pilot projects supported by International agencies. By looking at reality of the reform, I mean studying carefully the reception, negotiation and local hybridizing of those new tools beside the public advertising and exhibition of an apparent adhesion to the common and universal creed on participation and empowering of the poor. We will base our analysis on the study of the reception of De Soto program of land titling and actors appropriation in Egypt. Public policies toward Informal Settlements in Jordan ( ) Myriam Ababsa My research deals with the evolution of public policies toward informal areas and informal refugee gatherings in Amman in the past forty years. It is based on a fieldwork conducted in the governmental institutions and in the informal settlement of Nahariya, which is a non-recognized extension of the Wihdat Palestinian Refugee camp. Through several interviews, I have identified a double shift of the Jordanian Government ideological approach regarding the question of land tenure and access to 9 th MRM Meeting 2008 WS n 4 - Description Page 5 of 6

6 services in informal areas and non recognized refugees camps. This double shift was institutionalized in two stages, in 1980 and in Before 1980, Jordan had no policy regarding informal areas. The creation of the Urban Development Departement in 1980 by the Jordanian government totally changed the policy. A double program of upgrading some informal areas and creating sites with services started. This program included land titling and long term loans. In 1997, a second shift occurred with the launching of the National Strategic Plan in order to reduce poverty and solve unemployment in Jordan. A new policy of community infrastructures program was then implemented by the Housing and Urban Development corporation. For the first time, theses programs included the official UNRWA Camps in the governmental work. Squatters that had only hujja type contracts received compensations. But the government did not tackle anymore the political issue of land tenure. It only focused on services to be provided in informal areas and camps. The main reason given to this shift is a financial one. But one could also read it as a refusal to settle land property to refugees without citizenship (like the Gazean arrived in 1967 or the Irakies arrived since 2003). Through the Nahariya case studies, I will analyze the new public policies toward informal settlements in relation with the citizenship status of the inhabitants and their level of integration to the society. 9 th MRM Meeting 2008 WS n 4 - Description Page 6 of 6