Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Marginal Voices, Resilient Acts: Urban Marginality and Responses to Climate-Related Events in Lilongwe City Informal Settlements

  • Published:
Urban Forum Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Urban informal settlements have, over the years, been centres of conflicting development debates, yet, for people with low socio-economic status, these are areas of opportunities. However, the “peripheral” nature of these locations has far-reaching implications on how people in these areas participate in decision-making processes that affect them. Lately, the effects of climate-related events have also added another layer of socio-economic, political, and environmental challenge to the dynamics of life in the marginal areas of the urban setting. The purpose of this paper is to critically examine how people in marginal informal settlements of Lilongwe City respond to climate-related events and interact with the wider ecosystem of development stakeholders. The major thesis of the paper is that while critical policymakers ignore these peripheral voices in the provision of basic services, an enhanced support to these informal settlements can prove positive if efforts are harnessed to mitigate the effects of climate-related events and urban marginality and amplify marginal voices to change social policies for the good of all. This paper uses the case of Lilongwe City where three informal settlements of Mtandire, Kaliyeka, and Kawale form part of the study.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Aceska, A., Heer, B., & Kaiser-Grolimund, A. (2019). Doing the city from the margins: Critical perspectives on urban marginality. Anthropological Forum, 29(1), 1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Angelo, H., & Wachsmuth, D. (2014). Urbanizing urban political ecology: A critique of methodological cityism. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 39(1), 16–27.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, D., Almansi, F., DiGregorio, M., Roberts, D., Sharma, D., & Syam, D. (2014). Moving towards inclusive urban adaptation: Approaches to integrating community-based adaptation to climate change at city and national scale. Climate and Development, 6(4), 345–356.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Banks, N., Lombard, M., & Mitlin, D. (2020). Urban informality as a site of critical analysis. The Journal of Development Studies, 56(2), 223–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bayat, A. (2004). Globalization and the politics of the informals in the global south. In A. Roy & N. Alsayyad (Eds.), Urban informality: Transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America and South Asia (pp. 79–102). Lexington Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bernt, M. & Colini, L. (2013). Exclusion, marginalization and peripheralization: Conceptual concerns in the study of urban inequalities. Working Paper, No. 49, https://leibnizirs.de/fileadmin/user_upload/IRS_Working_Paper/wp_exclusion-marginalization-peripheralization.pdf

  • Bridge, G., & Watson, S. (2010). Introducing urban politics and planning. In G. Bridge & S. Watson (Eds.), City Reader (pp. 333–339). Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chappatte, A. (2015). Unpacking the concept of urban marginality. (ZMO Programmatic Texts, 10). Berlin: Zentrum Moderner Orient. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:101:1-201505281987. Accessed 12 Nov 2020.

  • Chinsinga, B., & Wren-Lewis, L. (2014). Grabbing land in Malawi. In T. Søreide & A. Williams (Eds.), Corruption, grabbing and development (pp. 93–103). Edward Elgar.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chiweza, A. L. (2019). Political economy analysis of urban governance and management in Malawi. Tilitonse Foundation. https://tilitonsefoundation.org/storage/2019/05/Urban-Governance-Report-for-the-Website.pdf

  • Cornia, G. A., Deotti, L. & Sassi, M. (2012a). Food price volatility over the last decade in Niger and Malawi: Export, sources and impact on child malnutrition. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/241758733_Food_Price_Volatility_over_the_Last_Decade_in_Niger_and_Malawi_Extent_Sources_and_Impact_on_Child_Malnutrition. Accessed 12 Nov 2020.

  • Cornia, G.A., L. Deotti, M. Sassi. (2012b). Food price volatility over the last decade in Niger and Malawi: extent, sources and impact on child malnutrition. UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa, WP 2012-002, February 2012.

  • Davis, M. (2006). Planet of slums. Verso.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Echendu, A. J., & Okafor, P. C. (2021). Smart city technology: A potential solution to Africa’s growing population and rapid urbanization? Development Studies Research, 8(1), 82–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gatzweiler, F., Baumüller, H., von Braun, J. & Ladenburger, C. (2011). Marginality: Addressing the root causes of extreme poverty. ZEF Working Paper No. 77. Center for Development Research, University of Bonn, Bonn.

  • Goldstone, J. A. (2019). Africa 2050: Demographic truths and consequences. https://www.hoover.org/research/africa-2050-demographic-truth-and-consequences

  • GoM (2016). Physical Planning Act No. 17 of 2016. Lilongwe: Malawi.

  • GoM (2019). Malawi 2019 Floods Post Disaster needs assessment. Lilongwe: Malawi.

  • Guijarro, C., Perez-Oviedo, J. & Amadeo, W. (2019). Center-periphery structures and dependency: A theoretical and methodological proposal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3488904 Accessed 20 October, 2020.

  • Harvey, D. (2007). A brief history of neoliberalism. Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2014). Cities or urbanization? In N. Brenner (Ed.), Implosions/explosions: Towards a study of planetary urbanization (pp. 52–66). Verlag GmbH.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kita, S. M. (2017). Urban vulnerability, disaster risk reduction and resettlement in Mzuzu city, Malawi. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 22, 158–166.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klinsky, S., & Mavrogianni, A. (2020). Climate justice and the built environment. Buildings and Cities, 1(1), 412–428. https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.65

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Magrath, J. (2010). The injustice of climate change: Voices from Africa. Local Environment, 15(:9–10), 891–901 https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2010.511642. Accessed 30 October 2020.

  • Makuwira, J. J. (2010). Urbanisation, urban poverty and non-governmental development organisations’ intervention mechanisms in Malawi: A review of the literature. Australasian Review of African Studies, 31(2), 8–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malekezo, F. (2020). Maize prices down by 30% in March. https://times.mw/maize-prices-down-by-35-in-march/. Accessed 15 November 2020.

  • Mamiwa, D. (2019). Urban governance in Malawi: How does it fair in the social justice and environment litmus test? Malawi Journal of Applied Science and Innovation, 3(2), 10–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mawenda, J., Watanabe, T., & Avtar, R. (2020). An analysis of urban land use/land cover changes in Blantyre city, Southern Malawi (1994–2018). Sustainability, 12(6), 2377. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062377

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Misoczky, M. C., & de Oliveira, C. M. (2018). The city and the urban as spaces of capital and social struggle: Notes on Henri Lefebvre’s enduring contributions. Brazilian Journal of Public Administration, 52(6), 1015–1031. https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-761220170122

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mwathunga, E., & Donaldson, R. (2018). Urban land contestation, challenges and planning strategies in Malawi’s main urban centres. Land Use Policy, 77, 1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mwathunga, E. (2014). Contesting space in urban Malawi: A Lefebverian analysis. Doctoral Thesis, Stellenbosch. https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/86660

  • National Statistical Office (NSO) (2018). Malawi 2018 Population and Housing Census. Government of Malawi: Zomba.

  • Pieterse, M. (2019). Where is the periphery even? Capturing urban marginality in South African human rights law. Urban Studies, 56(6), 1182–1197.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pieterse E. & Simone, A. (Eds.). (2013). Rogue urbanism: emergent African cities. Johannesburg: Jacana.

  • Refstie, H., & Millstein, M. (2019). Does participatory planning promise too much? Global discourses and the glass ceiling of participation in urban Malawi. Planning Theory & Practice, 20(2), 241–257. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2019.1606928

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Riley, L. (2019). Malawian urbanism and urban poverty: Geographies of food access in Blantyre. Journal of Urbanism International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability, 13(4), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2019.1647275

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shirazi, F. B. (1988). An empirical assessment of the center-periphery hypothesis in international economic relations. Dissertations and Theses. Paper 1206.

  • Thieme, T., Lancione, M., & Rosa, E. (2017). The city and its margins. City, 21(2), 127–134.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tione, S. E., & Holden, S. T. (2020). Urban proximity, demand for land and land shadow prices in Malawi. Land Use Policy, 94(104509), 2020. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104509.Accessed9November

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tonda, N., & Kepe, T. (2016). Spaces of contestation: Tension around street vendors’ struggle for livelihood and spatial justice in Lilongwe. Malawi. Urban Forum, 27(3), 297–309.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wacquant, L. (2008). Urban outcasts: A comparative sociology of advanced marginality. Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wekwete, K. (1988). Rural growth points in Zimbabwe: Prospects for the future. Journal of Social Development in Africa, 3(2), 5–16.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiyo, K. (2017). The hydrology of floods in Malawi cities. https://www.slideshare.net/napcentral/the-hyrdrology-of-floods-in-malawi-cities. Accessed 24 Nov 2020.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Malawi University of Science and Technology, P. O. Box 5196, Limbe, Malawi

    Jonathan Makuwira

  2. Research Associate, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

    Jonathan Makuwira

  3. Research Associate Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia

    Jonathan Makuwira

Authors
  1. Jonathan Makuwira
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan Makuwira.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Makuwira, J. Marginal Voices, Resilient Acts: Urban Marginality and Responses to Climate-Related Events in Lilongwe City Informal Settlements. Urban Forum 33, 51–64 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-022-09460-0

Download citation

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-022-09460-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation