Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide

In the past 200 years, urban spaces have been imagined as neatly laid out, well-planned, sanitised and civilised places of dense human habitation with regulated economic activity, where political power, financial capital, the frontiers of knowledge and technology thrive. This has been the urban plan...

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Main Authors: Ritu Priya, Ranvir Singh, Sayan Das
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Frontiers Media S.A. 2019-09-01
Series:Frontiers in Public Health
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00239/full
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spelling doaj-f11b5bb94e3f4f6d9eaa05b328f8e46e2020-11-25T02:38:29ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Public Health2296-25652019-09-01710.3389/fpubh.2019.00239461718Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal DivideRitu Priya0Ritu Priya1Ranvir Singh2Ranvir Singh3Sayan Das4Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, IndiaHealth Swaraaj Samvaad Group, South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy, New Delhi, IndiaHealth Swaraaj Samvaad Group, South Asian Dialogues on Ecological Democracy, New Delhi, IndiaDepartment of Social Work, Central University of Jammu, Jammu, IndiaCentre of Social Medicine and Community Health, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, IndiaIn the past 200 years, urban spaces have been imagined as neatly laid out, well-planned, sanitised and civilised places of dense human habitation with regulated economic activity, where political power, financial capital, the frontiers of knowledge and technology thrive. This has been the urban planners dream, even while it does not reflect the full reality, whether of cities in the LMICs or the HICs. In the face of such homogenising visions arising from Euro-American models, formal urban systems fail to provide adequately for residents' needs, who then carve out their own resources and processes for meeting them, largely within the domain of urban “informality.” While large part of literature presents urban informality as reflected in the slum, others have shown how it is found in relation to all classes (1). The concept of informality has largely been applied to the core dimensions of economic life of the city. Applied to people's “ways of life,” intermingling of the formal and informal becomes distinctly evident in everyday practices in locations such as the peri-urban, and in activities such as health care. This paper opens up the sphere of health care for urban planning that has, in recent decades, left it largely untouched. It uses data from a rapid assessment of health seeking behaviour of three socioeconomic groups—the middle class, slum-dwellers, and homeless— in Delhi, the capital city of India. The findings, relevant beyond the specific location, reveal that people of all sections resort to myriad informal arrangements for their health care, challenging the dominant connotation of the formal-informal denoting a legitimate-illegitimate dichotomy. This provides potential directions to bridge the formal-informal divide, to re-configure urban planning towards more sustainable futures with plural visions of land use and urban greening for healthier urban conditions and for health care provisioning. The analysis posits that, besides the economic and political relations shaping the formal and informal, the politics of knowledge must be factored in if the informal has to be adequately understood for building sustainable futures.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00239/fullurban healthurban planningurban health systems planninginformalityurban inequalitiesmedical pluralism
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Ritu Priya
Ritu Priya
Ranvir Singh
Ranvir Singh
Sayan Das
spellingShingle Ritu Priya
Ritu Priya
Ranvir Singh
Ranvir Singh
Sayan Das
Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide
Frontiers in Public Health
urban health
urban planning
urban health systems planning
informality
urban inequalities
medical pluralism
author_facet Ritu Priya
Ritu Priya
Ranvir Singh
Ranvir Singh
Sayan Das
author_sort Ritu Priya
title Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide
title_short Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide
title_full Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide
title_fullStr Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide
title_full_unstemmed Health Implications of Diverse Visions of Urban Spaces: Bridging the Formal-Informal Divide
title_sort health implications of diverse visions of urban spaces: bridging the formal-informal divide
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
series Frontiers in Public Health
issn 2296-2565
publishDate 2019-09-01
description In the past 200 years, urban spaces have been imagined as neatly laid out, well-planned, sanitised and civilised places of dense human habitation with regulated economic activity, where political power, financial capital, the frontiers of knowledge and technology thrive. This has been the urban planners dream, even while it does not reflect the full reality, whether of cities in the LMICs or the HICs. In the face of such homogenising visions arising from Euro-American models, formal urban systems fail to provide adequately for residents' needs, who then carve out their own resources and processes for meeting them, largely within the domain of urban “informality.” While large part of literature presents urban informality as reflected in the slum, others have shown how it is found in relation to all classes (1). The concept of informality has largely been applied to the core dimensions of economic life of the city. Applied to people's “ways of life,” intermingling of the formal and informal becomes distinctly evident in everyday practices in locations such as the peri-urban, and in activities such as health care. This paper opens up the sphere of health care for urban planning that has, in recent decades, left it largely untouched. It uses data from a rapid assessment of health seeking behaviour of three socioeconomic groups—the middle class, slum-dwellers, and homeless— in Delhi, the capital city of India. The findings, relevant beyond the specific location, reveal that people of all sections resort to myriad informal arrangements for their health care, challenging the dominant connotation of the formal-informal denoting a legitimate-illegitimate dichotomy. This provides potential directions to bridge the formal-informal divide, to re-configure urban planning towards more sustainable futures with plural visions of land use and urban greening for healthier urban conditions and for health care provisioning. The analysis posits that, besides the economic and political relations shaping the formal and informal, the politics of knowledge must be factored in if the informal has to be adequately understood for building sustainable futures.
topic urban health
urban planning
urban health systems planning
informality
urban inequalities
medical pluralism
url https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00239/full
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