How collectively organised residents in marginalised urban settlements secure multiple basic service enhancements: Evidence from Hyderabad, India

Abstract

Residents of marginalised urban settlements in low- and middle-income countries jointly experience multiple short-term basic service deficits which impair their health and broader wellbeing. A wide range of bottom-up strategies has been identified and employed to enhance basic service access in these contexts, but few scholars have attempted to conceptually organise these strategies. This study synthesises the disparate means identified in the literature to effect jointly experienced basic service access enhancements. It draws on fieldwork conducted in four notified slums situated in Hyderabad, India, to create a typology of the full range of strategies employed by collectively organised residents, illustrate how strategies interact in practice, and suggest a prioritisation of strategies with reference to the extent of pressure they exert on the local urban state to improve service provision over time. The study finds that high-pressure strategies which alter the incentives of public agencies and align them with those of residents appear the most promising to mediate the tension between short-term and long-term service needs.