Home-Grown Growth in African Cities: How Self-Build Housing Drives Urban and Economic Growth in Ghana and Tanzania

非洲城市的本土增长：自建住房如何推动加纳和坦桑尼亚的城市和经济增长

• 批准号: ES/V002759/1
• 负责人: Claire Mercer
• 金额: $ 101.72万
• 依托单位: London School of Economics and Political Science
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Research Grant
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ES%2FV002759%2F1
• 关键词: Home; Grown; Growth; African; Cities

This research investigates the drivers of urbanisation in two countries in Africa which have unprecedented rates of urban growth. It will study the economy of self-build housing in two established cities and two fast growing towns in Ghana and Tanzania. Understanding what drives rapid urban growth is an urgent priority for governments striving to ensure that housing, services and infrastructure keep pace with rising populations. Our project investigates how peoples' desire to improve their lives by building better housing affects the growth of towns and cities and how the goods, services and assets generated through self-organised house-building contribute to the wider economy. Our research will provide an account of the economy of self-built urban housing in Ghana and Tanzania in order to demonstrate how important such activity is for economic mobility and financing further urban development. Most academic and policy work on self-built housing in the global south has focused on negative impacts, including high density informal settlements where people live in extreme poverty. In much of Africa self-building is usual across all income groups and fuels the growth of all types of urban areas, from high-density informal settlements to better quality residential neighbourhoods developed by higher income residents. Over time self-build housing creates capital stock and income opportunities that provide a catalyst for residential and social mobility.This project empirically investigates how the economy of self-build housing in Accra and Techiman (Ghana), and Dar es Salaam and Ifakara (Tanzania) contributes to urban and economic growth. Accelerating urbanisation in established cities and small towns is driven by people acquiring plots of land and building houses gradually while renting space within them to lower income tenants and conducting businesses in and from housing. We will examine how this 'housing economy' operates in the absence of formal financial institutions, creating substantial opportunities for income, employment and asset generation which accelerate urban and economic growth. The project's aims are expressed as three research questions:1. how do people living in urban areas access housing as tenants or owners and how do they gain resources to acquire, finance and improve their homes? 2. how does self-organised construction contribute to the economies of urban areas?3. how does the economy of self-build housing affect social mobility, inequality and neighbourhood change? The objectives of the research will be delivered through three work packages which are designed to achieve the aims:1. We will use semi-structured interviews to show how people rent, build and make assets out of houses. 2. We will use observation and interviews with builders, owners and renters, to describe how the economy of self-build housing creates services and employment. 3. We will use interviews, oral histories, house tours and archival research to construct histories of the case study neighbourhoods in the four towns and cities and of plots within them, and to investigate asset accumulation, neighbourhood improvement and social differentiation. The research has been designed in collaboration with academic and policy partners in Ghana and Tanzania. It will fill an important gap in knowledge of the processes and experiences of urban land and housing markets in African cities, and how policy-makers could work with the opportunities presented by non-industrial pathways to economic growth.

这项研究调查了非洲两个城市化发展速度前所未有的国家的城市化驱动因素。它将研究加纳和坦桑尼亚两个成熟城市和两个快速发展城镇自建住房的经济性。了解是什么推动了城市的快速增长，是各国政府努力确保住房、服务和基础设施与不断增长的人口保持同步的当务之急。我们的项目调查了人们通过建造更好的住房来改善生活的愿望如何影响城镇和城市的发展，以及通过自我组织的住房建设产生的商品，服务和资产如何为更广泛的经济做出贡献。我们的研究将提供加纳和坦桑尼亚自建城市住房的经济情况，以证明这种活动对经济流动性和进一步城市发展融资的重要性。大多数关于全球南部自建住房的学术和政策工作都集中在负面影响上，包括人们生活在极端贫困中的高密度非正规住区。在非洲大部分地区，所有收入群体通常都进行自我建设，并推动了各类城市地区的发展，从高密度的非正规住区到高收入居民开发的质量更好的住宅区。随着时间的推移，自建住房创造了资本存量和收入机会，为住宅和社会流动性提供了催化剂，本项目实证研究了阿克拉和Techiman（加纳）以及达累斯萨拉姆和Ifakara（坦桑尼亚）的自建住房经济如何促进城市和经济增长。老城市和小城镇的城市化加速是由人们逐渐获得土地和建造房屋，同时将其中的空间出租给低收入租户，并在住房中开展业务所推动的。我们将研究这种“住房经济”如何在没有正规金融机构的情况下运作，为收入，就业和资产创造大量机会，加速城市和经济增长。该项目的目标是表示为三个研究问题：1。居住在城市地区的人如何作为租户或业主获得住房，他们如何获得购买、资助和改善其住房的资源？2.自行组织的建设如何促进城市地区的经济？3.自建住房经济如何影响社会流动性、不平等和邻里关系的变化？研究的目标将通过三个工作包来实现，旨在实现以下目标：1。我们将使用半结构化访谈来展示人们如何出租，建造和利用房屋进行资产化。2.我们将通过对建筑商、业主和租房者的观察和采访，描述自建住房经济如何创造服务和就业。3.我们将使用访谈，口述历史，房屋图尔斯和档案研究，以构建在四个城镇和城市的案例研究社区的历史，并在其中的地块，并调查资产积累，邻里改善和社会分化。这项研究是与加纳和坦桑尼亚的学术和政策伙伴合作设计的。它将填补非洲城市土地和住房市场的过程和经验方面的知识空白，以及政策制定者如何利用非工业途径带来的经济增长机会。