Community-based planning, collective action and the challenges of confronting urban poverty in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This paper examines the capacity of community-based planning to address two aspects of urban poverty in Southeast Asia: first, the local, material manifestations of household poverty, including inadequate housing and lack of access to infrastructure and services; and second, the structures and forces that create and sustain poverty, including the state’s land management systems and the actions of powerful political and economic elites. Building on literature about collective action and social movements, the article presents case studies of informal settlements in Chiang Mai, Thailand; Phnom Penh, Cambodia; and Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Each case study considers the organizational setting, the nature of the community’s housing and built environment, and community-level collective action. The article finds that, under optimal conditions, communities use collective action to address their material poverty, but not the broader social, political and economic forces that create and sustain poverty.