Papers by Benjamin Bradlow
Theory and Society
Why do some urban governing regimes realize a more equal distribution of public goods than others... more Why do some urban governing regimes realize a more equal distribution of public goods than others? Local government interventions in São Paulo, Brazil, have produced surprisingly effective redistribution of residential public goodshousing and sanitationbetween 1989 and 2016. I use original interviews and archival research for a comparative-historical analysis of variation across time in São Paulo's governance of housing and sanitation. I argue that sequential configurations of a) "embeddedness" of the local state in civil society and b) the "cohesion" of the institutional sphere of the local state, explain why and when urban governing regimes generate the coordinating capacity to distribute public goods on a programmatic basis. I further illustrate how these configurations can explain variation in urban governing regimes across the world. Keywords Bureaucracy. Governance. Housing. Movements. Sanitation. Urban inequality From a "new urban crisis" (Florida, 2017) in the United States, to a "planet of slums" (Davis, 2006) across the globe, unequal access to public goods pervades urban life. The scholarly tendency has been to explain urban exclusions as determined by the structural role of cities in the globalized integration of markets (Brenner & Theodore, 2002). Even so, democracy creates the possibility for alternative distributions of social power to address inequalities (Usmani, 2018). Explaining the distribution of public goods in democratic cities begs for variation-finding approaches. Why do some urban governing regimes realize a more equal distribution of public goods than others? This article proposes conceptual tools for answering this question through a comparative and historical study of a "least likely case" (Gerring, 2005) for improvements in including previously excluded residents into the built environment of public goods in the city. São Paulo, Brazil, the fourteenth most populous city in the world, grew Theory and Society
City & Community, 2021
Transitions to democracy promise equal political power. But political ruptures carry no guarantee... more Transitions to democracy promise equal political power. But political ruptures carry no guarantee that democracy can overcome the accumulated inequalities of history. In South Africa, the transition to democracy shifted power from a racial minority in ways that suggested an unusually high probability of material change. This article analyzes the limits of public power after democratic transitions. Why has the post-Apartheid local state in Johannesburg been unable to achieve a spatially inclusive distribution of public goods despite a political imperative for both spatial and fiscal redistribution? I rely on interviews and archival research, conducted in Johannesburg between 2015 and 2018. Because the color line created a sharp distinction between political and economic power, traditional white urban elites required non-majoritarian and hidden strategies that translated their structural power into effective power. The cumulative effect of these “weapons of the strong” has been to disable the capacity of the local state to countervail the power of wealthy residents’ associations and property developers. Through these strategies, elites repurposed institutional reforms for redistribution to instead reproduce the city’s inequalities.
Social Forces
Over the last several decades, dozens of dictatorships have become democracies. Yet while each ha... more Over the last several decades, dozens of dictatorships have become democracies. Yet while each has held free and fair elections, they have varied in the extent to which their citizens realize the ideal of self-rule. Why do some democracies distribute power to citizens while other democracies withhold it? Existing research is suggestive, but its implications are ambiguous. Cross-national studies have focused on democracy's formal dimensions, while work on substantive democracy is case-based. We find that one of the most consistent and powerful explanations of substantive democratization is the length of unarmed pro-democratic mobilization prior to a transition. Through a case study of Brazil, we illustrate that these movements matter in three ways: first, because practices of self-organizing model and enable democratic reforms; second, because movement veterans use state office to deepen democracy; and third, because long movements yield civil societies with the capacity to demand the continuous deepening of democracy.
International Development Planning Review, 2015
This article examines ways in which transnational grassroots networks produce knowledge and learn... more This article examines ways in which transnational grassroots networks produce knowledge and learning that crosses borders to help cities explore solutions to dilemmas of urban development. International development programmes often legitimise a narrow class of professionals, advising donor agencies and foundations, private investment institutions, governments and other providers of capital for developmental intervention through a predominantly vertical hierarchy. Shack/Slum Dwellers International, a network of urban poor federations across Africa, Asia and Latin America, has over two decades of experience sharing knowledge through a methodology that has promised to upend these relatively vertical relationships. This network represents a growing critical mass of local national and transnational organisations of the poor learning from each other. This article argues that Shack/Slum Dwellers International’s exchange methodology, built on collective learning and discovery between communities and formal government agencies, has begun to demonstrate its potential as a tool for unlocking processes of bureaucratic reform and associated learning.
Environment and Urbanization, 2011
This paper considers why the housing subsidy programme in South Africa has had so little impact o... more This paper considers why the housing subsidy programme in South Africa has had so little impact on poverty reduction despite its scale and generous funding. It discusses how this was linked to the government’s conception of housing, the institutions involved and who controlled funding flows for housing. Most government funding went to contractors to build new units “for the poor”; it was assumed that these would replace homes in informal settlements that the poor developed themselves. Despite statements about the government’s commitment to the People’s Housing Process (PHP), informal settlements were only seen in negative terms and there was no support for incremental upgrading and very little support for low-income households to build their own homes. Meanwhile, the contractor-built houses were usually too small, of poor quality and in locations far from livelihoods and services. The paper ends with suggestions for how the formal institutions of government can learn to support and work with the poor. The incremental approaches of the poor to their own housing and livelihoods can serve as an alternative first principle for conceiving of the challenge of human settlements policy and practice. Furthermore, funding flows and their associated institutions should support people-centred development and institutionalize systems that make the informed participation of residents of informal settlements a pre-condition for state support.
Sustainable Development Law & Policy, 2010
This paper will make three related arguments. First, legal and advocacy methods that hold governm... more This paper will make three related arguments. First, legal and advocacy methods that hold governments accountable with respect to their socio-economic rights obligations have continuing relevance. But such an approach has limited value in structuring mechanisms by which to actually deliver entitlements. Secondly, organizations such as Shack / Slum Dwellers International (“SDI”) are developing methodologies that move beyond a rights-based agenda that reacts to the denial of entitlements, to implement proactive, sustainable alternative solutions to evictions, and to thereby build the foundations for participatory, inclusive cities. In fact, the basic legal and institutional framework produced by the rights-based approach has been a prerequisite for opening the space for the alternatives that groups like SDI work on. Finally, there is common ground among these approaches that can serve as a basis for increased coherence of purpose and effort among civil society actors. In practice, this means supporting people-centered processes to address the large problems of urban human settlements worldwide in increasingly more sustainable and scalable ways.
Journal articles 2010-2015 by Benjamin Bradlow
This paper considers why the housing subsidy programme in South Africa has had so little impact o... more This paper considers why the housing subsidy programme in South Africa has had so little impact on poverty reduction despite its scale and generous funding. It discusses how this was linked to the government’s conception of housing, the institutions involved and who controlled funding flows for housing. Most government funding went to contractors to build new units “for the poor”; it was assumed that these would replace homes in informal settlements that the poor developed themselves. Despite statements about the government’s commitment to the People’s Housing Process (PHP), informal settlements were only seen in negative terms and there was no support for incremental upgrading and very little support for low-income households to build their own homes. Meanwhile, the contractor-built houses were usually too small, of poor quality and in locations far from livelihoods and services. The paper ends with suggestions for how the formal institutions of government can learn to support and work with the poor. The incremental approaches of the poor to their own housing and livelihoods can serve as an alternative first principle for conceiving of the challenge of human settlements policy and practice. Furthermore, funding flows and their associated institutions should support people-centred development and institutionalize systems that make the informed participation of residents of informal settlements a pre-condition for state support.
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Papers by Benjamin Bradlow
Journal articles 2010-2015 by Benjamin Bradlow