Planning to Forget: Informal Settlements as 'Forgotten Places' in Globalising Metro Manila

Abstract

As Metro Manila's economy has become increasingly integrated into global flows of trade and investment, it has also experienced a shelter crisis, as the number of people who cannot afford legal housing and consequently illegally settle in informal settlements has increased in both absolute and percentage terms. This paper discusses such informal settlements as 'forgotten places' in the global era. It makes two arguments. First, it argues that this shelter crisis is inherent to globalising cities in developing countries, as a contradiction emerges between the extensive redevelopment and rising property values that accompany 'global city' development and the shelter needs of low-income people. The second is that informal settlements have increasingly been forgotten by urban planners despite this housing crisis, as planners have consciously abandoned place-based poverty alleviation efforts based on the rationale that they are no longer tenable in the global era.