Housing .in Development : Policies Institutions And Forms Of Cooperation
Abstract
Introductory concepts \
In this introduction some concepts are clarified, and
expressed, focusing on what people do together and why and
this in order to conceptualize, plan, build, regulate, use,
destroy their built environment in general and their
particular.
. v i evpo in t s
how they do
maintain or
housing in
More specifically we will look at cpmplex housing realities from the
point of view of institutional or cooperative ar~angements, actors and
their ideas and actions in housing.
We will focus on e.g.
- decision-making and control
- policies, rules and regulations; customs, preferences and habits
- cooperation and exchange; conflicts and competition.
As a matter of convention we have labeled more established or structured
ways of shaping housing environments as instit~~ion~, and ad 110C
or occasional ways as 'fQrms ot~cooperation' in housing (see fig. I).
Although issues related to institutional aspects of housing are, and
have been for a few years somewhat more fashionable, together with e.g.
resources aspects (land, material, etc.) and certainly more fashionable
at present than architectural aspects, we will argue that a rather
narrow view of housing institutions is prevailing and, moreover that
many proposals related to institutional aspects have underlying
ideological and developmental viewpoints which are a matter of debate,
to say at least, if not a matter of serious doubt as to their relevance
in various contexts.
What people do together and how they do this in shaping their housing
environments involves a great variety of actors and actions operating
on a variety of scale levels and shaping a wide range of differing
hou!:jiTlQ.environments (fig.2). These housing environments (as any
physical environment) are not only results but also starting points for
human actions. Indeed; we shape buildings and buildings shape us!
In principle any combination of actors, actions and housing environments
is possible, and in specific contexts one can identify a great
number of combinations; an individual can plan a whole city or a family
can build its own house.
We will call a particular conbination of actors their actions and
housing environments, a housing arrangement or (if sufficiently common)
a housing 1sub~~Y~1~m. (fig 3)
Such housing arrangements or systems can be further labeled depending
on major sets of actors, sets of actions or sets of housing environments
Publisher
University of Nairobi
Rights
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United StatesUsage Rights
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/Collections
- Research Reports [210]
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