“Action Space” Based Urban Land Governance Pattern: Implication in Managing Informal Settlements from the Perspective of Low-Income Housing

Reshma Shrestha, Jaap Zevenbergen, Fahria Masum and Mahesh Banskota
Additional contact information
Reshma Shrestha: Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Jaap Zevenbergen: Faculty of Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation of the University of Twente, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands
Fahria Masum: Land Management Consultant, Connollystrasse 26, 80809 Munich, Germany
Mahesh Banskota: School of Arts, Kathmandu University, Hattiban, Lalitpur, Post Box 6250, Nepal

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Understanding the governance pattern between civil society and market actors in allocation, access to, and use of land for low-income housing is important in managing the informal settlement. In this study, the concept of “action space” is conceptualized as a means to analyze the interaction between civil society and market actors. This novel approach is then applied to a resettlement project in Nepal as a case study. The analysis revealed the mechanism by which the “action space” was created and the push and pull of the “action space” among actors that led to various types of legitimacy. The results show that due to a regulatory vacuum a gap between market legitimacy and social legitimacy was created, resulting in a failure to cater land for low-income housing. Analysis of governance patterns using the lens of “action space” offers an important perspective on how to minimize the gap between market legitimacy and social legitimacy.

Keywords: “action space”; civil society and market actors; informal settlements; land for low-income housing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/7/2202/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/7/2202/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:7:p:2202-:d:154876

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().