Land located close to economic opportunities is usually the most expensive land, and therefore the market tends to work against providing such land to low-income people, unless government intervenes or the poor themselves adopt strategies such as land invasions to access well-located land.
There have been a number of cases where the poor have been successful in gaining access to well-located land, either through their own initiatives, through private developers or lobbies, or through government action, often at local level. It is important to understand how this has been possible, as lack of access to well-located urban land has immediate and long-term economic and social implications, not only for the poor themselves, but also for the sustainability and efficiency of the overall urban environment, and for the overall social fabric of the city.
This project documents several instances where the poor have obtained access to well-located urban land, identifying what factors have been instrumental in accomplishing this, the nature of the integration, and the extent to which this has led to social inclusion.
