Urban housing and housing policy in Peninsular Malaysia
- Details
- Category: Housing
- Published: Tuesday, 26 August 2008 01:45
- Posted by Johnstone, Michael
Using the case of Peninsular Malaysia, this article examines how the question of housing provision addresses a wide variety of social, political and ideological meanings which link the masses of third world urban populations to the changing pace of development, the expansion of capitalism in the periphery, and to the activities of the state. The long-standing shortage of accommodation for the ever increasing strata of urban poor, the persistence of illegal and substandard dwellings and regional disc parities in the quantity and quality of housing constructed continue to be consequences of the existing system of residential construction. Governments have seen squatters as a barrier to development because the latter's need for land is usually in conflict with the demands of an expanding modern sector. In this way, illegal land occupation reflects the way the urban masses come into conflict with capital and the state over how the appropriation, use and structure of urban space, is defined. [Download]