The informal city and rights in South East Asian Cities
David Sweeting – Using intersecting ideas between informality developed by Ananya Roy; the state of exception by Giorgio Agamben; theories on rights to the city by David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre; and insurgent citizenship by James Holston, the paper offers a critical analysis of pro-poor and self-help housing policy and programs in Bangkok and Jakarta. The paper aims to examine housing policy in each case study through a socio-political and historical lens; and understand the extent and ambiguities of opening spaces for negotiation in the process of slum upgrading.
The paper concludes by offering potential trajectories for insurgent citizenship and spaces for negotiation in expanding notions of rights for the urban poor in Bangkok and Jakarta.
