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Informal Urban Sanitation: Everyday Life, Poverty and Comparison

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

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Authors

R. Desai

S. Graham



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 Mar 29, 2024
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.

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