MAZZOLINI Experiences_of_Inverse_Planning_Re_think

Prévia do material em texto

17TRIALOG 129 2/2017 - October 2017
The processes of horizontal expansion and densification 
of cities in Mozambique are the result of mixed semi-for-
mal and semi-legitimate proceedings of land subdivision 
and allocation. Several authors (Barros et al. 2013, An-
dersen et al. 2015, Melo and Viegas 2014) point out that 
“informal” settlements in Mozambique are shaped and 
reproduced through various factors not solely related 
with spatial access, extreme poverty, or educational lev-
el. The peripheral space is also produced through a 
widespread culture of imitating the formal urban grid 
(Nielsen 2009) in order to facilitate the land-regularisa-
tion processes. 
Traditionally, as the registration process for both land-use 
registrations and construction permits is neither consis-
tent nor systematic, the vast majority of housing is pre-
dominantly recognised as informal, despite the high level 
of residential security. This perception derives not only 
from the fact that the legal status of a building has al-
ways had limited impact on the social or economic situa-
tion of the owner within the city. It also derives from the 
intricacy of relationships and relational ties built up 
throughout the process of securing a plot or construct-
ing a house, often lasting several years; a process im-
bued with socio-political and cultural meanings, inferring 
a certain level of confidence about their “home spaces” 
(Jenkins 2012, 2013; Kamete and Lindell 2010). 
Recently, the city expansion has functioned as a private-led 
stimulus, which is raising concerns about urban equity (Lage 
2013). Some authors analyse changes to informal perceptions 
of security in this new, liberal context (Melo and Viegas 2014). 
Recent land-development policy is increasingly influenced by 
a new wave of regularisation programmes through a willing-
ness to formally register residents’ land-use rights (DUAT1) as 
the main solution to cope with urban expansion. An example 
is the ProMaputo programme still lying at the heart of De So-
to’s approach. In the context of increasing land pressures, lo-
cal planning entities feel the urgency to encourage all house-
holders or land users to quickly obtain their DUAT. 
This article debates on the current processes of “informal” 
and hybrid land management emerging from heteroge-
neous social groups, having the presence of a wealthier 
class influencing the perception of what is formal or infor-
mal within the city. The consequences in terms of urban 
governance that the changes within the culturally influ-
enced continuum of land access (transactions, actions) 
could have will also be discussed. Given the high penetra-
tion of culturally influenced “informal” settling-down dynam-
ics through self-production/subdivision of space in peripher-
al areas, Maputo is particularly suitable as a case study. 
The two presented cases2 of inverse planning are analysed 
through the lens of urban governance, aiming to specifical-
Experiences of Inverse Planning – Re-thinking 
Land Access and Urban Governance in Maputo, 
Mozambique 
Anna Mazzolini & Daniel Draper
Erfahrungen mit “Planung umgekehrt” – neue Konzepte für Landzugang und lokale Regierungsführung 
in Maputo, Mosambik
Maputo ist, wie viele Hauptstädte in Subsahara-Afrika, von schnellem Wachstum und sozio-ökonomischen 
Veränderungen geprägt. Jüngst beobachtete Dynamiken verdeutlichen die damit verbundenen Herausforde-
rungen. Bei Planung und städtischem Management sehen sich die Kommunalverwaltungen insbesondere von 
der wachsenden Mittelschicht gefordert, die bessere Wohnmöglichkeiten und Infrastrukturanbindung verlangt. 
Während sich die Behörden überwiegend um Strategien zur Regulierung des Zugangs zu Bauland bemühen, um 
die rasche Urbanisierung zu bewältigen, finden Bewohnergruppen neue Wege, um ihre Landnutzungsrechte zu 
sichern. Vieles deutet darauf hin, dass diese Pioniere der städtischen Entwicklung das Potenzial haben, die zu-
künftigen städtebaulichen Strukturen am Stadtrand nachhaltig zu beeinflussen. Abgesehen von den räumlichen 
Folgen der Expansion, bietet sich hier auch die Möglichkeit, den Gesellschaftsvertrag zwischen Bürger*innen 
und Kommunalverwaltung (insbesondere den Stadtplaner*innen) neu zu gestalten sowie den Zusammenhalt 
zwischen den verschiedenen städtischen Akteuren zu stärken. Dieser Artikel liefert zunächst eine kritische Ana-
lyse der empirischen Erkenntnisse einer Feldforschung aus den Jahren 2015-2016. Besonderes Augenmerk wird 
dabei auf die Wahrnehmungen, Befürchtungen und Sichtweisen der Bewohner*innen gelegt, deren Quartiere im 
Kontext dynamischen Stadtwachstums einem hohen Druck des Immobilienmarkts ausgesetzt sind. Der Artikel 
erläutert die Prozesse, die aus städtebaulichen Entwicklungsstrategien “von unten” entstehen, mit dem Ziel, 
bestehende Landregulierungsmechanismen zu hinterfragen, die auch in anderen Kontexten in Afrika existieren. 
Die Erkenntnisse aus dieser realen Stadtentwicklung könnten dazu beitragen, die Vorgehensweisen entspre-
chend anzupassen.
1 
Direito do Uso e Aproveita-
mento da Terra. 
2 
The cases analysed demon-
strate the diverse methods 
employed by an emergent 
class in trying to spatially 
represent an achieved status. 
These “inverse-planning” 
actions illustrate the ways in 
which residents act following 
spatial and aesthetical norms 
“as if the state was able to 
construct for them”, thus in a 
continuous intricacy between 
the imitation of the state 
and the “materialisation” of 
the residents’ social position 
(Lefebvre 2003 [1970]), as 
realised through spaces of 
representation. 
18 TRIALOG 129 2/2017 - October 2017
ly envisage: (i) new processes of production of peri-urban 
space as a consequence of the proactive efforts of an 
emerging middle class, (ii) inverse planning as the reshap-
ing of the “social contract” between citizens and the au-
thority, and also among the residents themselves, (iii) how 
authorities and residents are changing attitudes and the 
resultant consequences in terms of urban land manage-
ment and access, and (iv) the new roles in the game, given 
the presence of new actors such as local private firms.
1. “INVERSE PLANNING”, THE RESIDENTS, 
AND THE STATE 
“Inverse-planning” practices are defined here as embryon-
ic planning forms that are proposed, undertaken, and fi-
nanced by the residents. These actions are the result of a 
collective of householders who need to obtain their land-
use rights.3 The lower-middle class in particular, trapped 
between the necessity to obtain positive formal responses 
and the traditional ways of gaining land rights, is proactive 
in promoting such processes.4 This practice is carried out 
through the establishment of a direct agreement between 
the communities and architectural/planning firms for the 
topographical identification of the plots and urban design 
(roads, public spaces, etc.). 
The processes have their basis in the cultural importance 
that, especially since 2000, has been given to the spatial 
“form” of a plot as an implicit declaration of self-regularisa-
tion. Householders imitating the formal grid, formally or in-
formally, feel safer depending on which kind of “spatial out-
put” they are able to achieve. As a consequence, efforts in 
terms of urban inclusion have gradually shifted from a poli-
cy perspective to a physical/spatial one. 
The two cases detailed in this article could be considered 
the “middle class” continuation and adaptation of the very 
first inverse-planning action carried out by the Maguanine 
association in Costa do Sol in 2004, an association rooted 
in a poor community (Nielsen 2011). The association, in or-
der to obtain DUATs and secure the plots, “informally” con-
tracted a local architect to prepare a regularisation plan. 
Even though it was an “illegal” action”, and although the 
plan was only shared with the local authorityat the end of 
the process, it was approved. 
The “innovative” factor was that an urbanisation scheme 
came directly from the residents themselves, convinced 
that they would be properly included in the city’s plan 
through the imitation of a formal grid and respecting the 
plot-size standards. The assertion that such a process 
works has also been influencing the new middle-class resi-
dents’ aspiration to urban land. Since the first cases, there 
has been a significant upsurge in social actors implement-
ing such actions: nowadays, “inverse-planning” processes 
particularly seem to suit the new middle class’s urban 
needs as a safe, sometimes quick, way to obtain land-use 
rights. Despite being relatively recent, these actions are al-
ready differentiating themselves into several sub-niches of 
actions, depending on the internal composition of the resi-
dents’ groups implementing them. 
0.1. The Costa do Sol case5
The development of a community-led parcelling plan was 
the idea of Mr. Ibraimo, a middle-class householder and, 
now, residents’ committee coordinator. In 2013, Ibraimo 
was not a resident of Costa do Sol. He lived in a little apart-
ment in Central neighbourhood, but had acquired a plot in 
Costa do Sol to construct a house.
He managed to join about 200 families from four blocks 
(quateirões) interested in obtaining a DUAT. A special com-
mission was organised and a formal DUAT request sent to 
the Municipality, which rejected it and suggested that the 
residents contract a private architect to establish a work 
and financial plan. In this first phase, the Municipality was 
extensively involved and appointed two technicians to 
monitor the process. The two technicians suggested a list 
of architecture firms suitable, in their opinion, to develop 
the plan. The residents’ committee decided upon the pre-
ferred firm and contacted the architect. From that mo-
ment on, the Municipality maintained only an observatory 
role. 
3 
The DUAT missive is strictly 
related to the inclusion of the 
plots in a formal urbanisa-
tion plan (e.g., “plano de 
parcelamento”, “plano de 
reordenamento” or “plano de 
pormenor”).
4 
The first three inverse-plan-
ning actions identified were 
detailed by Nielsen (2011), 
who defined them as “inverse 
governmentality” processes.
5 
This case is not the first one 
in the neighbourhood. An 
“inverse governmentality” 
process was documented 
in detail for the first time by 
Nielsen in 2008, regarding 4 
quarterões (neighbourhood’s 
sub-units) in Costa do Sol. 
Anna Mazzolini, the main au-
thor of this article, is currently 
conducting a comparative 
research between the two 
cases.
 
Figure 1: House under 
construction in Costa do Sol, 
Maputo. Photo: A. Mazzolini 
2015
References
• Andersen, Jørgen Eske-
mose; Jenkins, Paul, and 
Nielsen, Morten (2015) 
“Who Plans the African 
City? A Case Study of 
Maputo: Part 1 – The 
Structural Context”. In: 
International Development 
Planning Review, 37(3): 
329-350.
• Barros, Carlos Pestana; 
Chivangue, Andes, and 
Samagaio, António (2013) 
“Urban Dynamics in 
Maputo, Mozambique”. In: 
Cities 36: 74-82.
• Jenkins, Paul (2001) 
“Strengthening access 
to land for housing for 
the poor in Maputo, 
Mozambique.” In: Interna-
tional Journal of Urban and 
Regional Research, 25(3): 
629-648.
• Jenkins, Paul (2004) 
“Querying the concepts 
of formal and informal in 
land access in developing 
world – case of Maputo’ In: 
Vaa & Hansen (ed) Formal 
and Informal City – What 
Happens at the Interface. 
Uppsala: Nordic Africa 
Institute.
19TRIALOG 129 2/2017 - October 2017
The residents developed and signed a private agreement 
establishing the value of the parcelling process, stating 
that the individual costs would be proportional to the plot 
size. It was also decided that the overall value had to be 
paid to the architect in several tranches to facilitate the 
poorest families. A joint bank account was opened. At the 
time of the first field monitoring, two years after the estab-
lishment of the contract (November 2015), only 35 house-
holders had put their agreed contributions in the account. 
About 165 payments were lacking, and the account bal-
ance was only 20% of the required amount.
In Ibraimo’s opinion, the main reasons for this were the 
considerable time spent in organisational terms, the lack of 
trust of some householders, and sudden unforeseen eco-
nomic constraints. Currently, the architect has approval 
from the Municipality to proceed with a small part of the 
parcelling plan, excluding the conflicting zones. However, 
the economic issues are not completely resolved and the 
architect is trying another strategy. Working on the empty 
plots, the wealthier population could easily pay to speed 
up the process for the whole group.6 Meanwhile, some 
subjects belonging to a tiny elite are recurring to tradition-
al, semi-legal (or also bribery) modalities in order to speed 
up their DUAT emission process. 
0.2. The Polana Caniço case
A similar process started in 2013 in Polana Caniço due to a 
land conflict with the neighbourhood of Costa do Sol. The 
residents of 4 quarterões felt threatened by the planned 
construction of a condominio,7 and around 200 house-
holds collected signatures and made a claim to the Munici-
pal Council. Although they received a positive response, 
the Municipality passed the responsibility to the Ministry of 
Central Administration (MAE). The MAE tried several nego-
tiations between the residents and the private company, 
but the developer did not participate in the meetings. The 
MAE passed over the process to the Municipality, choosing 
two technicians to be in charge of the process and field 
 
Figure 2: Street in Costa do 
Sol, Maputo, area recently 
inhabited by middle-classes. 
Photo: A. Mazzolini 2015
 
Figure 3: Satellite image of 
Polana Caniço settlement in 
Maputo. Source: Google Earth 
image 2016
6 
 Those subjects hold the plots 
of land farther away from the 
main infrastructures, and for 
this reason they feel less con-
fident/safe about their right 
to stay or to construct there: 
Thus the interest in rapidly 
soliciting their land title. They 
seem proactive in paying a 
higher amount than required, 
and to subsidise poorer 
neighbours (that is to say, 
to also provide their DUATs) 
with the aim of definitively 
closing the process. 
7 
A horizontal, fenced residen-
tial community.
References (Cont.)
• Jenkins, Paul (2012) “Luso-
phone Africa: Maputo and 
Luanda”. In: Therborn & 
Bekker (ed.) Capital Cities 
in Africa South of the Sa-
hara, published by Human 
Science Research Council 
(South Africa) & CODESRIA 
(Senegal).
• Jenkins, Paul (2013) Ur-
banisation, Urbanism and 
Urbanity in an African City: 
Home Spaces and House 
Cultures. Basingstoke, 
Hampshire/New York: 
Palgrave Macmillan.
• Kamete, Amin Y. and 
Lindell, Ilda (2010) “The 
politics of ‘non-planning’ 
interventions in African 
cities: unravelling the 
international and local 
dimensions in Harare and 
Maputo”. In: Journal of 
Southern African Studies, 
36: 889-912.
• Lage, Luis (2013) “Caracter-
izacao dos Assentamentos 
Informais da Cidade de 
Maputo.” Report. Maputo: 
FAPF.
• Lefebvre, Henri (2003 
[1970]) The Urban Revolu-
tion. Minneapolis: Univer-
sity of Minnesota Press.
20 TRIALOG 129 2/2017 - October 2017
work. The technicians, having verified the neighbour-
hood’s boundaries, expressed in favour of the communi-
ty. The community decided then to hire an architect to 
prepare a detailed plan.8 
A small private enterprise did the fieldwork in 2014, and 
the community opened a joint bank account. A price per 
square metre was established. Some lower-middle-class 
householders also paid for poorest. The process of col-
lecting the entire amount took one year. The detailed plan 
was thus elaborated and delivered to the Municipality.The DUAT missives were quickly approved in August of 
2014. Since then, individual communications from the 
Municipality to the residents have commenced, including 
the value for the DUAT emission. 
In November of 2015, nearly 90% of the families were in 
possession of the DUAT. This does not mean that the pro-
cess was free of constraints. Some families with severe 
monetary problems had to go to the Municipality to nego-
tiate the value. Ten percent of the families experienced 
problems, such as no response from the Municipality. The 
main reason was the lack of clarity by the private enter-
prise in charge of the plan, as well as the conflicting 
roles.9 The Municipality later reassured the owners of 
these plots that they would receive their DUATs. The plot 
regularisation, the reallocation of some houses or court-
yards, would happen after the middle-class newcomer 
residents had settled in. This agreement had not been re-
spected in the first phase, leading to an increasing feeling 
of insecurity and of being “left alone” among the poorest 
residents. 
Eventually, some municipal technicians advanced with 
the proposal of a “collective DUAT” for the remaining ten 
percent. The population rejected the proposal, consider-
ing that collective DUATs would put them in an unfavour-
able situation in the event that the residents wanted to 
build on or sell their own plots. The situation is now re-
solved, and the Municipality dispatched all the DUAT mis-
sives by the beginning of 2016. 
2. SPATIAL PRACTICES IN TRANSITION – A 
NEW URBAN SOCIAL CONTRACT?
The two cases studied are a perfect example of the on-
going reshaping of the urban social contract in two paral-
lel ways: a “vertical” relationship between the planning 
authority and residents, and a “horizontal” one among 
various different socio-economic groups. The role of the 
local authority is caught between being regulatory and 
“culturally influenced”, the latter being characterised by 
a complex network of relations and intentions. Although 
this position is not new within the Maputo urban-plan-
ning system, it is gradually changing and evolving due to 
these more frequent inverse-planning actions.
Moreover, it is worth reasoning whether there is a differ-
ence in the way the local authority chooses to deal with 
the processes of “inverse planning”, depending on which 
social segment initiates it. From a local perspective, in 
fact, if such an action were implemented by the urban 
poor it could be interpreted as a sort of “licit” continuum 
of space self-management. If carried out by the urban 
middle class, it could be misinterpreted as a gentrifica-
tion process (interview with DPMUA, October 2015). 
In terms of costs, the procedure relieved the Municipality 
of some technical actions as well as parcelling costs. 
Specific urbanisation costs, such as the collocation of 
the marcos, were transferred from the local government 
to the citizens themselves. The expenses charged to the 
residents for the marcos collocation and for the plan 
elaboration do not change the fact that, following the 
plan approval, they are also supposed to pay the normal 
fee of the issuance of the DUAT document. 
 
Figure 4: Low-income house 
in Polana Caniço, Maputo, 
involved in the “inverse plan-
ning” process. Photo: A. 
Mazzolini 2015
8 
A “plano de pormenor”.
9 
One of the private techni-
cians in charge of the plan 
was in fact working for the 
Municipality, and provided 
a subdivision plan that in 
some parts was rejected by 
the local authority because 
some plot sizes did not fit the 
current normative.
References (Cont.)
• Melo, Vanessa and Viegas, 
Sílvia Leiria (2014) “Habita-
ção de iniciativa pública 
em Luanda e Maputo: 
modelos de intervenção e 
impactos socioterritoriais 
no novo milénio”. In: Pos, 
21(36): 124-140.
• Nielsen, Morten (2009) In 
the Vicinity of the State. 
House Construction, 
Personhood and the State 
in Maputo, Mozambique. 
Institut for Antropologi, 379 
p. (PhD series, Vol. 51).
• Nielsen, Morten (2011) “In-
verse governmentality. The 
paradoxical production 
of peri-urban planning in 
Maputo, Mozambique.” In: 
Critique of Anthropology, 
31: 329-358.
• Simone, Abdou Maliq 
(2015) “What You See Isn’t 
Always What You Know: 
Struggles against recon-
tainment and the capaci-
ties to remake urban life 
in Jakarta’s urban majority 
world.” In: Southeast Asia 
Research 23: 227-244.
• Simone, Abdou Maliq and 
Fauzan, Achmad Uzair 
(2013) “On the way to 
being middle class: The 
practices of emergence in 
Jakarta.” In: City: analysis 
of urban trends, culture, 
theory, policy, action, 17(3): 
279-298, DOI: 10. 1080/ 
13604813.2013.795331.
• Turok, Ivan (2016) “Housing 
and the urban premium” 
In: Habitat International 
54(3): 234-240.
21TRIALOG 129 2/2017 - October 2017
In terms of spatial equity/urban inclusion, the impasse of 
the final stage of the Polana Caniço case illustrates how 
these processes could lead to land transactions that are 
unequal, particularly regarding the poorest residents. 
Those still waiting for their DUAT may feel the urgency to 
sell their plot to the incoming wealthier class, even at a 
lower price, because of the “illegality” of any transaction 
without a DUAT. 
The local architect interviewed for the case of Costa do 
Sol gave a contrasting perspective, repeatedly pointing out 
how inverse planning could be a valuable instrument to 
guarantee quick solutions in hotspot areas, avoiding illegal 
transactions and fostering urban inclusion. This would be 
due not only to the presence of an “external” actor medi-
ating the planning process, but also because the whole 
process would be accelerated, which could help to avoid 
the overlapping of various actors/interests on the same 
plots, which often arises when an extremely slow bureau-
cratic process occurs. 
Analysing the social implications, certain core components 
of the inverse-planning actions infer a possible reshaping 
of the set of relationships and/or undeclared social obliga-
tions between the urban poor and the emerging middle 
class. Such actions could be viewed as the beginning of a 
new kind of integration between particular spatial interests 
and traditional land-achievement modalities, promoting 
collective actions capable of overcoming the lack of clear 
and qualitative land regulations and the cumbersome bu-
reaucracy. However, it is obvious that this could weaken 
the local urban governance apparatus. The retreat of the 
planning authority from the process threatens some im-
portant fundamentals of urban inclusion, thus giving add-
ed importance to the land-title document. This aspect, in 
Maputo, challenges the urban “realpolitik” of widespread 
acceptance of “informal” settling-down actions as alterna-
tive but still valid ways of production of space. 
4. ACTORS AND RESPONSIBILITIES – A 
LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
The degree of the local authorities’ engagement with the 
inverse-planning process is a key factor to analyse forth-
coming planning scenarios. That is to say: the way in 
which all these detailed plans will be included in the gen-
eral city plan, a posteriori, could imply the introduction of 
completely new tools within the existing urban plans and 
planning processes. More than this, the roles and respon-
sibilities among the triangle of actors is bound to be com-
pletely redefined. 
In order to discuss these points, it is worth following a 
local perspective, in particular that of the third actor 
entering the process, the local firm. It is interesting that 
the definition that the architect in charge of the Costa 
do Sol parcelling plan uses to define the “inverse-plan-
ning” process is that of “social planning”.10 With this 
term, he emphasises not only the fact that land alloca-
tion is carried out through a community-based action 
and a set of transversal agreements involvingdifferent 
actors, but also the fact that these actions hold the po-
tential to provide a certain level of urban and social 
“protection”. The architect believes that a real social-
planning action could be carried out uniquely with the 
superseding of the Municipality field actions, limiting its 
role to a regulation/normative/bureaucratic/fiscal 
one.11 
Regarding the sustainability of the inverse-planning ac-
tions, there seems to be a wide consensus about the 
fact that “it works” (interview with Prof. Tique, CEDH, in-
terview with Polana Caniço committee president, and 
interview with private topographer and architect, 2015). 
The consensus seems to be that once a plan appears, 
it will be approved if basic regulations have been re-
spected. 
10 
He pointed out how, before 
the year 2000, this private 
sector expertise was not 
present in the country. 
Nowadays, however, as the 
architect said in a personal 
communication in March 
2016, “There are many quali-
fied persons now in the city, 
they are persons who want 
to help.” As for community 
involvement, the architect 
reassures that during his 
mandate there was complete 
collaboration because of the 
participatory planning meet-
ings. These meetings were 
fundamental for becoming 
aware of the residents’ needs 
and preferences, in particu-
larly regarding public spaces 
(green zones, leisure areas, 
spaces for vendors).
11 
“I consider the Municipality 
as an administrative subject 
solely. People think that the 
Municipality has to go on 
the field, to ‘see’, to ‘know’, 
but this does not work. They 
solely have to control, to 
check if the plan is adaptable 
to the structural city plan, 
to approve, to make money 
from the taxes, and do invest 
that money. And so on. The 
Municipality must hold a ho-
listic vision, preparing terms 
of reference for the plans, 
but they are losing their time 
with all these little parcelling 
actions.” (Interview with a 
local architect, done by Anna 
Mazzolini in March 2016.)
 
Figure 5: A lower middle-
class house in Polana Caniço, 
Maputo. Photo: A. Mazzolini 
2016
Daniel Draper 
Is a writer and researcher who 
has led numerous innovative 
investigative projects such as 
examining the social and cul-
tural benefits of built heritage 
for HEART (Heritage Economic 
and Regeneration Trust). He 
has also worked with some of 
the UK’s most internationally 
successful and well-known 
companies in the creative 
industries and with Guardian 
Newspapers. Contact: <dan-
draper@gmail.com>
22 TRIALOG 129 2/2017 - October 2017
CONCLUSIONS
In the Costa do Sol and Polana Caniço neighbourhoods, 
both lower- and middle-class residents and newcomers 
are progressively complementing Mozambique’s realpolitik 
in terms of land access with new, personal market-driven 
rationalities, and the “inverse-planning” actions analysed 
here are perfect proof of those interrelations. These pro-
cesses are likely to spread very quickly, as is proven by the 
fact that that more and more (but also less qualified) to-
pographers and local architects are now offering such ser-
vices to the communities, fostering a brand new competi-
tive niche in the market (interview with local architects and 
Costa do Sol committee representatives, October 2015). 
It could be argued that this way of acting perpetrates a tra-
ditional attitude adapted to the new regularisation policies. 
In reality, such a peculiar way of obtaining land rights es-
capes strict definitions, and the consequences it might 
have are impossible to fully envision because it holds the 
potential to subvert so many aspects of conventional ur-
ban governance dynamics. What is relevant is that it is 
more and more the Municipality itself that, lacking other vi-
able strategies, persuades the residents to resort to com-
munity-private contracts to produce their own parcelling or 
upgrading plan. 
These processes could be seen as an instrument to man-
age new expansion zones (or land-conflict zones) and to 
limit the power of private interests on land. However, the 
fact that these processes seem to “work” uniquely through 
the presence of a wealthier class infers that these benefits 
might not be applicable to the whole community, thus 
holding the risk to become an “unclear” planning solution. 
Inverse planning should be recognised as a continuum: the 
main reason for accepting the first “illegal” planning action 
being the lack of financial and technical means.12 Inverse 
planning should be seen as a rupture as far as the relation-
ships and the micro-politics are concerned. In this sense, 
we can define at least three main arguments following 
which the inverse planning breaks with this continuum: 
i. The local authority, the land-use planning, and the gov-
ernance: the sense of the planning policies is clearly 
subverted in the cases documented. Principally, the 
collective interest makes space for a “generic” interest, 
which can be claimed (using the DUAT as the main in-
strument) in different situations by different actors. 
Profound changes are implied: a shift from the recogni-
tion of the land rights to the mere allocation of them 
through the verification of the adherence to the new 
planning framework, and an ex-post planning carried 
out by a local private sector rather than an ex-ante 
planning through a long-term state strategy. A conse-
quence: a shift from a socially “collective” interest to a 
commoditised “generic” one.
ii. The perception of the space, the middle class, and the 
urban poor: generally, a parcelled zone implicitly means 
a zone inhabited in the near future by a wealthier elite 
(Nielsen 2011). Moreover, in the last decade, the plot 
perimeters have proved to increase the land-tenure-
security perception (Jenkins 2004). These two main em-
bedded perceptions are increasingly intersecting with 
each other in the inverse-planning process. In the 
same manner, mechanisms culturally related with spe-
cific classes are interchanging (Simone et al, 2013). The 
middle class take inspiration from and reproduce a 
strategy rooted in poor communities to defend their 
land use. The poor class, seemingly proactive in engag-
ing in market-led aspirations, do not always (after re-
ceiving the DUAT) move farther.
iii. Inverse planning as a social action. There are many 
voices defining these actions as “social” actions. From 
a certain point of view, they could also be interpreted 
as a sort of local “resistance” towards private-led de-
velopment. The real news is that such a resistance is 
cross-class and transversal to different income 
groups.
We can choose to define inverse planning as a logical 
strategy emerging from a different socio-economic scenar-
io in a context of administrative and political weakness: in 
this sense, the effectiveness of the output achieved can be 
contested, as “where political will was weak and where the 
nature of the market is embryonic and highly distorted in 
favour of the economically powerful, the consequence of 
regularising the informal is likely to be the opposite of what 
some land reformers lobby for” (Jenkins 2001: 11). In this 
sense, the novelty of the phenomenon could be contested. 
Reversely, we could choose to define it as a new way for 
the lower classes to achieve the desired “urban premium” 
(Turok 2016), taking advantage of a wealthier class willing 
to speed up its construction process. 
We can be sure of what the inverse planning is not. It is not 
an innovative form of participation in a general context of 
weak governance. The disappearing of the state and the in-
creasingly imitative, and increasingly formalising, actions 
superseding the state planning are not bound to be a new 
instrument of participation. Nor is it an innovative technical 
solution. What is really new is the particular set of relation-
ships (not only authority-citizen,but also the triangle pri-
vate-public-community) deriving from such actions, and 
the subtle relationships between the visibility or invisibility 
of these new practices and orientations (Simone 2015) 
with the urban governance issue. 
 
Figure 6: Socially mixed area 
in Polana Caniço, Maputo. 
Photo: A. Mazzolini 2015
12 
The continuum follows 
the traditional recognition 
of the auto-production of 
space or housing as a real 
co-production mode within 
the city. This co-production, 
due to the lack of technical 
or administrative alternatives, 
quickly gains a certain level 
of legality. For this reason, in 
the two examples described, 
the “illegality” of the urban 
occupations is still to be 
considered as a “floating” 
category that is continuously 
changing and reversing.
Anna Mazzolini
is an architect and PhD in 
Regional Planning and Public 
Policies. She has worked sev-
eral years in slum upgrading 
projects for NGOs and UN-
Habitat. She provided consul-
tancies for the elaboration of 
national urban policies and for 
research institutes. She is cur-
rently working as consultant 
and housing policy expert for 
UN-Habitat. Contact: <anna.
mazzolini@gmail.com>