Unsettled: low-income housing and mobility in Bamako, Mali

The first chapter in this publication is a review of existing literature on urban growth and related issues in Africa, and the question of self-help housing more generally. Chapter two focuses on Bamako's historical "roots', tracing the growth and evolution of its popular housing areas up to the date of independence, as well as the social and economic context in which the city has grown. Chapter three continues this examination of urban growth and neighbourhood creation for the period since independence. It reviews the social and economic development of Mali over recent decades, in an attempt to characterize the context in which low-income housing in this city is created and modified. Chapter four makes a start with the presentation of survey results. Its subject is the nature of low-income housing in Bamako - specifically, the role of self-help in this respect. An assessment of the city's residential structure follows as well as an analysis of the consolidation process in the context of Bamako. Subsequently, three chapters deal with mobility patterns of Bamako's low-income population. Chapter eight introduces the subject of the land market and its main issues, and proceed by reviewing the performance of Bamako's regular supply of urban land for housing. Chaper nine completes the examination of land market constraints by an analysis of the operation of the supply of untitled land in Bamako's spontaneous settlements. -from Authors