Informal Urban Sanitation: Everyday Life, Poverty and Comparison

McFarlane, C; Desai, R.; Graham, S.

Abstract

The global sanitation crisis is rapidly urbanizing, but how is sanitation produced and sustained in informal settlements? While there are data available on aggregate statistics, relatively little is known about how sanitation is created, maintained, threatened, and contested within informal settlements. Drawing on an ethnography of two very different informal settlements in Mumbai, this study identifies key ways in which informal sanitation is produced, rendered vulnerable, and politicized. In particular, four informal urban sanitation processes are examined: patronage, self-managed processes, solidarity and exclusion, and open defecation. The article also considers the implications for a research agenda around informal urban sanitation, emphasizing in particular the potential of a comparative approach, and examines the possibilities for better sanitation conditions in Mumbai and beyond.

Citation

McFarlane, C., Desai, R., & Graham, S. (2014). Informal Urban Sanitation: Everyday Life, Poverty and Comparison. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 104(5), 989-1011. https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2014.923718

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 1, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jul 14, 2014
• Publication Date: 2014
• Deposit Date: Sep 12, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 14, 2016
• Journal: Annals of the Association of American Geographers
• Print ISSN: 0004-5608
• Electronic ISSN: 1467-8306
• Publisher: Association of American Geographers (AAG)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 104
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 989-1011
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2014.923718
• Keywords: Everyday life, Informal settlements, Mumbai, Sanitation, Comparison.
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1450469