Abstract
I. Themes For Future Issues
Housing seems to be in crisis in most urban centres around the world. In prosperous cities, house prices rise faster than incomes – forcing low-income (and even a proportion of middle-income) households into more cramped, poor-quality housing in more peripheral locations. In much of the global South, high proportions of city populations live in informal settlements because they cannot afford to buy, rent or build formal good-quality housing. The proportion of individuals who live in informal settlements – often 30–60 per cent of city populations – is a measure of the failure of formal systems. The irony is that this is marginalizing the workforce on which city prosperity depends – and on which its wealthier households depend for goods and services. We welcome papers that offer original analyses of the causes of the housing crisis.
We also welcome papers that give us insights into how low-income urban dwellers buy, build or rent (or otherwise acquire) accommodation and their priorities with respect to shelter. And how this can be supported by national and local government policies and programmes that increase the supply and reduce the costs of housing. This includes:
Expanding supplies of serviced plots for housing with good access to employment and integrated into high-quality public transport
Reducing costly, slow and often corrupt procedures for land purchase
Changing inappropriate regulations – for instance unnecessarily large minimum plot sizes
Housing finance systems that are inclusive and that support land purchase and incremental housing
We encourage papers that go beyond descriptions of the problems to offer conceptual and analytical insights into inclusive and scalable solutions – including examples of good practice. This includes housing initiatives that draw on resources from individuals/households and community organizations (including their savings and their capacities to contribute to upgrading) and private sector enterprises (for instance for building materials, small loans and rental housing), as well as drawing resources and support from ward, municipal and higher levels of government. We also welcome papers on housing initiatives, which include building resilience to the changes that climate change will or may bring and that contribute to low-carbon cities.
Education is fundamental to the achievement of equitable and transformative urban development, a means of both fostering the urban advantage and deriving optimal benefit from everything this advantage implies. It is also, of course, the avenue to personal development, contributing as it does to the potential to exercise agency in the world and to what Appadurai termed the capacity to aspire. And yet too often problems with both access and quality make education, or its absence, yet another dimension of the disadvantage of poor urban citizens, denying them opportunity and reinforcing exclusion. Migrants and refugees may find it especially difficult to gain access to schooling. In some cities, poor urban children are actually less likely to attend school than their rural counterparts.
This issue of the journal will focus on a wide range of related topics as they pertain to education in urban areas. We welcome both broad policy discussions and detailed case studies, and analyses of the barriers to education as well as papers on interesting models and solutions. We encourage submissions on both formal school systems and informal alternatives, on Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and its implications for families, on adult literacy and training for livelihoods, on health education and on the self-education of organized groups, working to advance their options and to participate in the decisions that affect their lives.
II. Discounted Prices and Electronic Access to Environment and Urbanization
All papers published in Environment and Urbanization since its first issue in 1989 are available at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau, and all but those published during the last two years are open access and so available electronically free of charge. Printed subscriptions to the journal are also available at no charge to libraries or resource centres of universities or teaching or training institutions in low- and middle-income nations.
In addition, the publisher of Environment and Urbanization, SAGE Publications, offers large discounts on subscription prices to charities and students and to all subscribers from low- and middle-income nations − see http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau and click on “Subscribe”. With regard to electronic access, there are schemes that allow access to Environment and Urbanization for universities and research centres in low- and middle-income nations − see Research4Life (http://www.research4life.org). This includes Online Access to Research on the Environment (OARE), which has research journals on the environment, including Environment and Urbanization (http://www.unep.org/oare/).
III. Medio Ambiente Y Urbanización (MAyU)
The last 29 issues of our sister journal are accessible at no charge at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iieal/meda. The latest issue is themed around La Ciudad Latinoamericana (“The Latin American City”).
IV. Urbanisation
Our sister journal Urbanisation is co-published by SAGE and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. It is edited by Aromar Revi, and available for free on registration. For more details, see http://urbanisationjournal.com. The latest issue includes the paper “Urban commuters in Indian states and cities: modes of transport and distances”. The submission deadline for the next issue is 1 December 2019 (http://urbanisationjournal.com/#callforpapers).
V. Environment and Urbanization/Medio Ambiente Y Urbanización Pen Drive
Our pen drive has all papers from Environment and Urbanization from 1989 to 2013 and all papers from Medio Ambiente y Urbanización from 2008 to 2015. Do contact us if you would like one of these (also providing your postal address); these are available at no charge. All the items on this pen drive are available open access online – but this pen drive will be useful for those with difficult, limited or slow internet access.
VI. Blogs
Recent Urban Matters blogs (http://www.iied.org/urban-matters):
The rise of Nairobi’s concrete tenement jungle – Baraka Mwau
Making Indian cities inclusive means making them more walkable
To stay ahead of climate change, cities need to act now – David Satterthwaite
‘Participatory’ adaptation plans aren’t working for migrants in cities – Eric Chu and Kavya Michael
Unsmart, unsafe cities for informal workers: effective policy change will need better data – Alice Sverdlik
VII. Twitter
To receive news about Environment and Urbanization and urban issues in general, including updates when new Book Notes are available, please follow the journal at @EandUjournal and editor David Satterthwaite at @Dsatterthwaite
VIII. Facebook
You can visit and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentandUrbanization
IX. Email Newsletter
The urban newsletter of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is emailed to subscribers roughly every two months and provides updates on the Human Settlements Group’s activities and publications. To sign up to receive the newsletter, please visit http://www.iied.org/sign-up
You can sign up to receive announcements about new Environment and Urbanization articles at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau
X. Papers on Climate Change
A compilation of the abstracts and details of more than 90 papers published in Environment and Urbanization on climate change and cities, or on issues of risk that have relevance to climate change, is available at http://journals.sagepub.com/page/eau/collections/climate-change-papers
XI. Engaging Readers in Book Notes
Our Book Notes section has short summaries of new publications (including working papers and books) that we prepare. We invite you to send us short summaries of new publications you have read that you found interesting – and relevant to urban issues. This includes summaries in English of works published in Spanish, French or Portuguese. Authors may submit summaries too, but not promotional material. You can send these summaries to
For more details, including guidance on preparing book notes, see https://www.environmentandurbanization.org/browse-book-notes
XII. 30 Years of E&U
This year, Environment and Urbanization celebrates 30 years of publishing. Sincere thanks to our many valued authors, reviewers, board members, readers, translators, designers, production professionals, and others who have supported the journal.