Homeownership on the Fringes: Understanding tenure security as a tool of slum clearance in modern Manila (with Nancy Kwak)

With roughly 4 million residents living in informal settlements in Metro Manila, the Philippine government has reasons to experiment with large-scale clearance. The politics of eviction and forcible removal require a justification beyond the greater good, however.  This talk will explore how homeownership has become a critical tool in the government’s relocation and resettlement programs for thousands of informal dwellers in the capital city.

Nancy Kwak is an assistant professor of history and urban studies and planning at UC San Diego.  Her book, A World of Homeowners: American power and the politics of housing aid post-1945 will be published by the University of Chicago Press this fall (2015). She has also published pieces on the history of American, Singaporean, and Hong Kong public housing programs as well as co-editing a special edition for the Journal of Urban History on public housing in the Americas.