Stewart, Jill ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3031-8082, Dhesi, Surindar, Mokale, Priyanka and Arbotante, Samantha (2026) Living infrastructures: informal housing, sanitation and community in Mumbai and Davao City. City. ISSN 1360-4813 (Print), 1470-3629 (Online) (In Press) (doi:10.1080/13604813.2026.2764028)

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Abstract

In this article, we explore conditions in informal housing settlements and their relationship to public health, focusing on Mumbai (India) and Davao City (Philippines). These are selected to present geographical and cultural difference and nuance in community experience and approaches to enhancing the living environment. Our shared research and visual images inform themes of health and safety in the often-overlooked context of informality, and we also focus on gender, race and class in the different contexts. We explore how communities have been able to work together to help enhance local living conditions. Through visual representations of Mumbai and Davao City, we seek to show that informal settlements are not limited to housing infrastructure but also shape housing segregation, caste and gender dynamics and everyday violence. Communities face struggles to access basic civic amenities such as water, sanitation and sustainable housing, but these can be mitigated by participative processes. Such proliferation of informal housing and slums can create unhealthy and unsafe places to live but our examples demonstrate what communities themselves are trying to do to enhance their living environments. Our Davao City example illustrates residents’ challenges from informality to being regularised and the benefits this brings. Our case studies provide important lessons more widely since such settlements are increasingly regarded as cities of the future.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Housing and health, informal housing, slum, Mumbai, Davao City
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform R Medicine > R Medicine (General) R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development Faculty of Education, Health & Human Sciences > Institute for Lifecourse Development > Centre for Inequalities
Last Modified:	12 Nov 2026 11:14
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/55005

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