Beyera Bayuma Tefera, Abebe Birhanu Girma
Ethiopian Institute of Architecture, Building Construction and City Development, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia.
Heliyon. 2023 Aug 29;9(9):e19515. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19515. eCollection 2023 Sep.
Informality plays an imperative role in offering housing for households in developing countries when the formal market cannot provide enough to keep up with residents' demands. The actors' interaction, with one another, plays an imperative role in land transactions in informal settlement areas. As informal actors operate outside the formal land transactions their activities and methods of operation are rarely understood. Therefore, based on social network theory, this paper aims to identify and examine informal actors, their functions, interactions, and power relationships in informal settlement areas. To this end, this study employed key informant interviews, focus group discussions, structured questionnaires, and a review of published literature, as well as official documents. In the study area, most residents acquired land through informal mechanisms. Major actors include farmers, local land administrators, speculators, land brokers, residents, government officials, and religious leaders. The study also uncovers that the role of each actor varies from information provision to price fixing. Their roles and interactions are governed by dynamic networks and occasionally overlap functions. Among the network actors, land brokers are considered the most influential and powerful because they possess a high degree of centrality, closeness, betweenness, and eigenvector. They hold a pivotal position in the network and act as a liaison between the network's actors. Therefore, the roles of land brokers, who often actively influence the land transaction process, should be considered in urban land governance and incorporated in policy formulation and implementation.
当正规市场无法提供足够住房以满足居民需求时，非正规性在为发展中国家的家庭提供住房方面发挥着至关重要的作用。行为主体之间的互动在非正规住区的土地交易中起着至关重要的作用。由于非正规行为主体在正规土地交易之外开展活动，他们的活动和运作方式鲜为人知。因此，基于社会网络理论，本文旨在识别和研究非正规住区的非正规行为主体、他们的功能、互动以及权力关系。为此，本研究采用了关键信息人访谈、焦点小组讨论、结构化问卷、已发表文献以及官方文件回顾等方法。在研究区域，大多数居民通过非正规机制获得土地。主要行为主体包括农民、当地土地管理人员、投机者、土地经纪人、居民、政府官员和宗教领袖。研究还发现，每个行为主体的作用从提供信息到定价各不相同。他们的角色和互动受动态网络支配，功能偶尔会重叠。在网络行为主体中，土地经纪人被认为最具影响力和权力，因为他们具有高度的中心性、接近性、中间性和特征向量。他们在网络中占据关键位置，充当网络行为主体之间的联络人。因此，在城市土地治理中应考虑经常积极影响土地交易过程的土地经纪人的作用，并将其纳入政策制定和实施中。
