The right to the city and sound housing policies for the poor – analysing policy arrangements in urban Indonesia

Christian Obermayr (University of Innsbruck) |

Adequate and affordable housing for the poor remains one of the great challenges of the 21st century. Despite all efforts in the past housing policies have largely failed. This paper develops a normative compass and conceptual framework based on Henri Lefebvre’s right to the city and the policy arrangement approach for studying governance and housing policies in two Indonesian cities, Surabaya and Surakarta, known for their good urban practices. The goal is to reveal the characteristics of local governance that allow sound housing policies to emerge. Based on a mixed-methods approach, consisting of 50 expert interviews, a survey (n=23) and social network analysis (n=22), applied housing policies (resettlement policies, social housing, participative self-help approaches etc.) and governance conditions are studied. The results show that sound housing policies (participative, people-centred, pro-poor) do emerge under non-hierarchical modes of governance shaped by multiple and diverse actors, shared power relations, inclusive discourses and oriented towards a normative goal – the right to the city.