Polarizing informality: Processual thinking, materiality and the emerging middle-class informality in Taipei.

In recent debates, it has been argued that urban informality is a way of living. It is the consequence of people negotiating with building regulations, limited resources and their living environments. However, as some researchers have pointed out before, informality is not just the experience of sub...

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Publicado en:Environment & Planning A Vol. 51; no. 6; pp. 1225 - 1242
Autor principal: Chien, Ker-hsuan
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Sage Publications Inc. Sep2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: Polarizing informality: Processual thinking, materiality and the emerging middle-class informality in Taipei.
      aug:
        au: Chien, Ker-hsuan
        affil: National Taiwan University, Taipei
      su:
        Taiwan
        Middle class
        Demographic change
        Squatter settlements
        Construction materials
        Construction industry
      sug:
        subj:
          Middle class
          Demographic change
          Squatter settlements
          Taiwan
          General-line building supplies merchant wholesalers
          Other Construction Material Merchant Wholesalers
          Other Building Material Dealers
          Other specialty-line building supplies merchant wholesalers
          Residential building construction
          Construction materials
          Construction industry
      keyword:
        Informality
        materiality
        processual thinking
        Informality
        materiality
        processual thinking
      ab: In recent debates, it has been argued that urban informality is a way of living. It is the consequence of people negotiating with building regulations, limited resources and their living environments. However, as some researchers have pointed out before, informality is not just the experience of subalterns; in some cases, it has become the shared experience of people across different classes. This paper therefore employs processual thinking and materiality to demonstrate how urban informality was formed and has been transformed through negotiations between people, local authorities and political realities. By thinking about Taipei's informality as a negotiating process, informality can thus be understood as the co-production process of squatters' struggle for a living in the city and the state's attempt to mobilize political support. As new construction materials have prompted varied illegal construction forms, attracting new people to build illegal constructions, the demographic change has also changed the people–state relations. The state's governance of illegal construction therefore has been leaning towards private property owners with illegal add-ons, leaving squatter settlements vulnerable to demolition. In the case of Taipei's transforming urban informality, this paper argues that informality is not merely the result of poverty, and should not be romanticized as a way to live outside the housing market or the modern planning regime. On the contrary, it should also be examined for its impacts on the existing class differences and inequality in urban populations.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
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      src: R
    language: English
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