We aim to answer three research questions:
1. How do people living in urban areas access housing as tenants or owners and how do they gain resources to acquire, finance and improve their homes?
2. How does self-organised construction contribute to the economies of urban areas?
3. How does the economy of self-build housing affect social mobility, inequality and neighbourhood change?
The project is based on qualitative research in two of Africa’s fastest-growing cities (Accra, Ghana; and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania), and in two fast-growing towns (Techiman, Ghana; and Ifakara, Tanzania).
The research is organised in to three work packages:
1. Using surveys to show how people rent, build and make assets out of houses;
2. Using observation and interviews with builders, owners and renters, to describe how the economy of self-build housing creates services and employment;
3. Using interviews and oral histories with residents, businesses and local government officials to understand processes of asset accumulation, neighbourhood improvement and social differentiation in the four towns and cities.