A socio-spatial methodology for evaluating urban land governance: the case of informal settlements

Abstract

Urban land has social and spatial dimensions. Governance of urban land should consider these dimensions. Existing methods of evaluating land governance tend to focus on the social dimensions: the spatial dimensions are considered less. A socio-spatial approach developed here is argued to fill this gap. This research supposes that informal settlements can be used to understand urban land governance. A conceptual framework that links urban land governance, socio-spatial dimensions and informal settlements is developed and tested through a case study. The results show that the socio-spatial methodology improved understanding of equity, efficiency and transparency as compared with the existing approaches which are solely based on poor-quality and unreliable data. This methodology can be used beyond informal settlements such as understanding infrastructural delivery and quality, mapping potential conflict areas and urban land uses where governance plays a great role. Overall, the socio-spatial methodology enabled an all-encompassing evaluation of urban land governance.