Abstract

Expanded state-subsidised housing programmes in middle-income countries raise questions about the displacement and socio-spatial marginalisation of poor households. Examining these questions through people’s experiences of resettlement indicates the importance of mobility to their lives. Drawing on a mixed-method comparative study of Ahmedabad, Chennai and Johannesburg, we ask: How does the relocation of low-income households to urban peripheries reshape the links between their physical and socio-economic mobility, and how does this impact on their ability to build secure urban futures? Experiences of families moving to five peripheral settlements indicate two linked challenges to the social and economic mobility of the peripheralised urban poor: first, their immediate and individual ability to be mobile within the city and second, the longer-term social mobility of their households. While trajectories towards secure urban citizenship for all remain a policy aspiration, housing policies and practices are placing this on hold or even reversing this, with mobility constraints locking many low-income groups into marginality.

摘要

中等收入国家扩大的国家补贴住房计划引发了关于贫困家庭流离失所和社会空间边缘化的问题。通过人们的重新安置经历来审视这些问题表明了流动性对他们生活的重要性。借助对艾哈迈达巴德、钦奈和约翰内斯堡的混合方法比较研究，我们提出以下问题：低收入家庭迁往城市周边地区如何重塑他们的身体和社会经济流动性之间的联系，以及这对他们的能力有何影响建立安全的城市未来？家庭搬到五个外围定居点的经验表明，外围城市贫民的社会和经济流动面临两个相互关联的挑战：第一，他们在城市内流动的直接和个人能力，第二，他们家庭的长期社会流动性。虽然实现所有人获得城市公民身份的轨迹仍然是一项政策愿望，但住房政策和实践正在搁置甚至扭转这一点，流动性限制将许多低收入群体锁定在边缘。