Metropolitics

Land Insecurity in Khartoum: When Land Titles Fail to Protect Against Public Predation

Alice Franck & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-06-06T05:00:00Z

The unstable economic and political context in Sudan has encouraged people to invest massively in land in urban areas. In Khartoum, the land rush concerns everyone, from the elite to the working classes – and, above all, the authorities, who maintain a stranglehold over these precious assets. Title deeds are regularly disputed, suggesting that land insecurity is on the increase.
---- Series: Land Rights in the Global South. Regularization and Land-Ownership Policies in Low-Income

- From the Field / property, land, Africa, Global South, insecurity, land tenure, land rights, land titles, property rights, property titles, property tenure, Khartoum, land titling, property ownership, public land, land use, title deeds, land insecurity, Sudan

Insecure Lives Under Extreme Climate Conditions: Insights from a Fishing Hamlet in Tamil Nadu, India

Devendraraj Madhanagopal — 2018-04-17T05:00:00Z

In recent years, climate change–induced weather events have exacerbated poverty and insecurity in small fishing villages on the southeastern coastline of India. Author Devendraraj Madhanagopal documents the difficult choices that vulnerable fishermen must make between safety and livelihood, and urges action.
---- Series: Climate Change and Social Change Rainwater and seawater surrounded the whole village, and we were disconnected from the external world for a few days.
[15 March 2016,

- From the Field / safety, poverty, India, climate change, vulnerability, insecurity, precarity, Tamil Nadu, fishing, social change

The Other Side of Austin, Texas

Caitlyn Collins & Katherine Jensen & Kristine Kilanski & Javier Auyero — 2015-03-02T05:50:00Z

Despite a booming economy, Austin, Texas, is a city where inequalities persist and grow in the shadow of neoliberal governance. Ethnographer Javier Auyero and his students give us a preview of the book Invisible in Austin: Life and Labor in an American City, where they explore the rough and varied lives of the contemporary urban poor.
Working on the dark side
“There's a joke: What's the difference between a cocktail waitress and a stripper? Two weeks.” Raven laughs loudly. “I literally went

- From the Field / inequalities, United States, work, exclusion, ethnography, poverty, neoliberalization, insecurity, Austin, homelessness, precarity, marginality, neoliberalism, urban poor

When Predator Becomes Prey: Rental Housing in Low-Income Minority Neighborhoods

Clément Théry — 2015-02-02T11:00:00Z

In the growing low-income rental market, predator and prey roles can shift, as landlords and tenants alike can fall victim to predatory cliques led by lawyers with local knowledge and a promise to help. Clément Théry's extensive research finds that affordable housing policy must recognize the threats low-income tenants face in the private market.
Most accounts of the rental housing market in low-income minority neighborhoods point to the role of major corporations with connections to

- From the Field / gentrification, ethnicity, housing, United States, New York, landlords, minorities, rental, poverty, race, housing crisis, insecurity, rent, rental housing