Abstract
I. MISSION STATEMENT
II. THEMES FOR FUTURE ISSUES
III. DISCOUNTED PRICES AND ELECTRONIC ACCESS TO E&U
IV. SISTER JOURNALS
V. BLOGS
VI. SOCIAL MEDIA
VII. EMAIL NEWSLETTER
VIII. ENGAGING READERS IN BOOK NOTES
I. Mission Statement
Environment and Urbanization (E&U) seeks to advance a more socially just and environmentally sustainable urban world through the provision of knowledge. Our focus is the global South, where an estimated one in three of the urban population live in informal settlements and where more than half work within the informal economy. UN projections suggest that almost all the world’s growth in population in the next few decades will be in urban centres in the global South.
Contributors to E&U include those engaging with critical social science to add theoretical and conceptual insights, those reporting innovative empirical findings that augment our understanding of context and solutions (and their significance for theories and concepts), and those able to share the voices of activist representative groups and movements that are rarely seen in the scholarly literature. In other words, our journal aims both to advance social justice and be the change we strive for by encouraging contributions that share the perspectives of disadvantaged and marginalized groups.
E&U particularly encourages researchers, NGO staff, professionals and activists in Africa, Asia and Latin America to write about their work, present their ideas and debate issues. We promote the work of French, Spanish and Portuguese-speaking authors by arranging for the translation of their work into English.
Papers commonly deal with poverty, inequality, and the power relations underpinning both disadvantage and transformation. Papers also report on trends, policies, programmes and practices related to urbanization, urban development and urban environments. We are concerned with processes of progressive change, while recognizing that these are contested, and that change is neither unilinear nor necessarily progressive. Urbanization processes are often poorly understood and papers that contribute insights supporting an accurate understanding of grounded realities are important to us. We recognize that sustainable development, including needed responses to climate change, is critical to both current and future populations, and that ecosystems have a critical role in the wellbeing of urban populations and the resilience of their cities. We encourage contributions related to such themes.
II. Themes for future issues
This special issue has an explicit focus on towns and cities in low- and middle-income countries hosting refugees and IDPs in protracted displacement.
Although statistics are unreliable, it is generally accepted that the majority of forcibly displaced people – around 60 per cent of refugees and more than half of all internally displaced people (IDPs) – now live in towns and cities around the world. Globally, 76 per cent of refugees are living in low- and middle-income countries, and urban areas of the global South are thus disproportionately affected by these trends. Many displaced people arrive with limited assets, and find that without humanitarian assistance or the legal right to work, these are quickly depleted. Locating to areas of the city with the cheapest rents, refugees and IDPs often live alongside low-income and marginalized households in informal settlements, where they may experience additional vulnerabilities linked to their migration status.
Statements on the urbanization of displacement now appear with regularity in international policy documents or on the websites of humanitarian organizations. However, programming and assistance for urban refugees and IDPs still lag behind the attention and funding focused on camps. Recognition that displacement trends are mirroring broader urbanization trends are only slowly translating into in-depth research on the urban experiences of displaced people, and the impacts of displacement on the urban fabric, its economy and systems of service delivery.
In many countries, cities of refuge are intrinsically linked to camps. In some cases, displaced people will have transited through or lived in a camp, or move between the camp and an urban centre, often to nearby secondary cities. Aid agencies and hosting governments present the camp as an alternative for those who are unable to achieve “self-reliance” in the city. In addition, there is a body of scholarship that posits that camps, over time, develop social and economic systems – as well as infrastructure – that are urban in nature. The idea that remote camps could become autonomous urban centres, functioning without the support of humanitarian assistance, has also caught the imagination of some international policymakers and donors.
Despite the co-existence of refugees in urban areas and in camps, and the flows of people, goods, capital and information between them, comparative research on the experiences of these populations is rare. An exception is IIED’s Protracted Displacement in an Urban World study, that has used mixed methods to compare the wellbeing and livelihoods of refugees and IDPs in camps and urban areas of Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Jordan and Kenya. Building on IIED’s research, this special issue of Environment and Urbanization will provide a platform for original research on the intersections of urbanization and displacement, experiences of displaced populations (including comparative work between camp and urban spaces), actual and potential roles for municipal authorities responding to the arrival of forcibly displaced people, and policy and programming innovations promoting inclusive environments for refugees and IDPs in towns and cities.
How displaced people navigate formal and informal city systems to find shelter, achieve livelihoods and access basic services;
Reflections on refugee/IDP self-reliance and/or wellbeing in towns and cities, their economic and social contributions, and the opportunities and barriers to a decent standing of living in exile;
Municipal responses to forced displacement that promote refugee and IDP inclusion, including innovations in participatory city planning and expanding service provision and protection;
Experiences of international, national and community or refugee-led organizations in supporting municipal authorities and local service providers to promote an inclusive, safe environment for displaced people in towns and cities;
Explorations of the relationships between camps and cities, and how displaced people navigate the humanitarian system to maximize benefits to themselves and their families;
The role of secondary cities and small urban centres in providing opportunities for refugee livelihoods and protection;
Analysing the experiences of refugees and IDPs in the context of theories related to urban inequality and intersectional disadvantage including stigmatization and social exclusion.
This special issue of Environment and Urbanization will engage with a political strategy long used by both advantaged and disadvantaged groups, that of urban coalitions. While the role of such reform coalitions in effecting broad-based urban change in the global North is widely recognized, there is little comprehensive analysis of their formation and work in the global South. Coalitions, at least in part, may be understood as a response made by agencies to reposition a reform agenda, managing state–society relations to benefit excluded groups. Faced with potentially hostile urban development processes, diverse groups of citizens and professional support agencies have invested in coalitions to ensure their voices are heard and their interests secured. This issue seeks to address that gap by asking questions about the political role and purpose of coalitions, their contribution to advancing specific types of state–society interaction, and practices that underpin coalition-building and maintenance. We are not differentiating between coalitions and alliances in this discussion; we are talking about groupings that come together with shared values and common purpose in anticipation of achieving mutual benefits through activities that are sustained over the time required.
There is a myriad of different ways in which groups are disadvantaged and marginalized. Some are related to exploitation, others to dispossession, and still more to denial, discrimination and misrepresentation. Other NGOs and/or academic groups are committed to advancing public interest issues such as improving tax collection or improving access to public services. These are coalitions and alliances that come together to manage political outcomes to secure mutual advantage through building relations across class lines. For those who are disadvantaged, these relations offer ways to source recognition, information, knowledge, emotional support and advice. Coalitions and alliances emerge as effective in multiple ways; however, one of their most significant contributions evident in the existing literature is that they enable voice, and to amplify that voice as it emerges.
What are the benefits that result from working with this modality? And how do groups manage their internal power dynamics to achieve these benefits? When do disadvantaged groups avoid coalitions and/or walk away? Answering these questions will help us to understand the motivations for such strategies and “why” groups choose to invest in coalitions.
While coalitions and alliances are not unique to the urban context, there are specificities in the urban context that appear to favour these approaches. One of these specificities is the need for reforms at multiple points in the process. What can we learn from coalitions that work at multiple scales including both the city and the neighbourhood?
Diverse groups in the global South including academics, civil society organizations and community groups have practical experience in coalition-building to effect an urban change. This collection seeks to advance our understanding of the formation, composition, operation and evaluation of urban reform coalitions working towards broad-based, equitable and sustainable outcomes. We are particularly interested in lessons around how political elites and state officials (at all levels) can be draw into formal and informal alliances. How can coalitions and alliances be developed such that they are used to have the greatest effect – i.e. how to do this to maximize the benefits and minimize the costs? These papers will answer the “how” question.
We are conscious that building coalitions and alliances is only one option for urban social movements. Organizations that nurture insurgent citizenship may see dangers from engaging with coalitions, and/or may try and fail with this strategy as they are pressured to avoid antagonizing the state. What are the challenges to this approach and when is it not an effective use of resources? Or, looked at another way, what are the motivations (such as perceived political opportunities) that trigger coalitions (rather than an alternative strategy), and when are coalition strategies abandoned in favour of another approach? Addressing this question will help us understand the “when” question.
As might be anticipated in any relatively new field of enquiry, there appear to be a plethora of distinct initiatives. But are they really so distinct? Is it possible to group efforts and experiences of a similar type together? And if so, what are the typologies that can help bring together such a categorization?
There are both material and ideational realities that have to be addressed for urban transformation to be secured. That requires public goods to be provided to the benefit of all including the most disadvantaged groups; it requires identifying strategies that enable prosperity to be secured through building capabilities and supporting enterprise development; and it necessitates new governance models that nurture citizen engagement and an accountable state. If it is the idea of urban development that has been re-visioned and alternative, and more new solutions to address urban challenges need to be identified, developed and tested, then what is the role of coalitions in this? How do coalitions understand the nature of urban development challenges, and how do they identify and develop their own contributions to these processes? If the questions above are about the “what, why, how and when” questions related to coalitions, then this final question is about the self-identity of coalitions and the construction of their public persona.
Finally, there are no panaceas or “cookie-cutter” approaches to short cut development. And we do not want to present reform coalitions through such a lens. Rather we are looking for critical perspectives on the questions above.
III. 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).
IV. Sister journals
The last 32 issues of Medio Ambiente y Urbanización (MAyU), published by IIEDAmérica Latina, are accessible at no charge at http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/iieal/meda. Urbanisation, co-published by SAGE and the Indian Institute for Human Settlements, is available at http://urbanisationjournal.com.
V. Blogs
Recent urban blogs (https://www.iied.org/collection/transition-predominantly-urban-world):
Climate chasm: the yawning gap between policy and reality – Efadul Huq and Tanzil Shafique
Getting attention to urban health issues – or not? – David Satterthwaite
(Mis)adventures in the former Soviet Union with the WHO – David Satterthwaite
Simplified sewerage systems: lessons from Dar es Salaam – Christopher Yap
Keeping urban health on the agenda in the 1980s and 90s – David Satterthwaite
Building resilient cities with the resilience of informal workers – Sonia Dias
Burgeoning growth of deltaic cities puts lives and livelihoods at risk – Gordon McGranahan
Further data tales: decoding land ownership and other challenges – Antarin Chakrabarty
The changing status of Karachi’s women – Arif Hasan
Do national governments and international agencies need urban health departments? – David Satterthwaite
Is the international community failing urban refugees and how do we fix this? – Lucy Earle
Abandoned no more: Mumbai’s new park on previously disused land – Jasmine Saluja and Oormi Kapadia
VI. Social media
To receive news about Environment and Urbanization and urban issues in general, including updates when new Book Notes are available, please follow the journal on X (formerly Twitter) at @EandUjournal. Also on X are editor-in-chief Diana Mitlin @Diana Mitlin and editor David Satterthwaite @Dsatterthwaite. You can visit and follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EnvironmentandUrbanization. Our LinkedIn page is https://www.linkedin.com/company/environment-andurbanization.
VII. Email newsletter
The urban newsletter of the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) is emailed to subscribers several times a year 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 email alerts about new Environment and Urbanization articles at http://journals.sagepub.com/home/eau.
VIII. 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 other languages. Authors may submit summaries too, but not promotional material. You can send these summaries to