What about enforcement? Does informality result from non-enforcement?

Not always, but there are examples. For instance, with regards to the titling or privatization of informal housing and settlements, governments sometimes opt not to enforce, although legally prohibiting such arrangements. As a result, the level of conflict is low. This is a typical example of an “empty institution”, because “ [p]articularly when sensitive issues are at the center stage of social and political debate, ‘empty’ institutions tend to surface as a sort of institutional compromise. In these situations, institutions can become detached or ‘decoupled’ from social actors’ behavior to avoid conflict. As such, the empty institution is, by and large, ineffective and ignored, yet simultaneously socially accepted, little contested and, in effect, to a certain degree credible. ” See P. Ho, “ Empty institutions, non-credibility and pastoralism: China’s grazing ban, mining and ethnicity ”, Journal of Peasant Studies , 2016, 43/6, p. 1147.

RECOLAND – Land-Based Institutions in China

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“That what ultimately determines the performance of institutions is not their form in terms of formality, privatization, or security, but their spatially and temporally defined function. In different wording, institutional function presides over form; the former can be expressed by its credibility, that is, the perceived social support at a given time and space. This postulate has here been dubbed the “credibility thesis”. (Peter Ho in Land Use Policy, 2014, Vol. 40, Sept., pp. 13-4) ...

Guggenheim NY: Chinese Villages

Posted on 3rd August 20203rd August 2020 by Main User

In parallel to decades of relentless urbanization, the Chinese government has, with much less fanfare and global attention, been dramatically redefining its countryside. This is the topic for a much acclaimed, well visited exhibition on the Chinese countryside by Rem Koolhaas, organized at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Prof. Peter Ho acted as advisor to the project team. For impressions, ple...
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Protected: Workshop: Credibility as a Tool in Policy Analysis?

Posted on 26th May 202027th May 2020 by Main User

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Call: Cambridge Elements on Global Development Studies

Posted on 14th May 202022nd May 2020 by Main User

Cambridge University Press has recently launched the Elements on Global Development Studies, a new short monograph series (20,000-30,000 words), that publishes ground-breaking, novel works that move beyond existing theories and methodologies of development to consider social change in real times and real spaces. The series is essentially inter-disciplinary and multi-disciplinary in nature as refl...
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Credibility of Informality: Call for papers

Posted on 22nd November 201822nd November 2018 by Main User

For a special issue on the Credibility of Informality with regards to the property rights of urban housing, slums and land in an urban context, the journal Cities (SSCI, IF: 2.7) could consider high-quality papers. Papers that focus on informal property rights in regions except for China, i.e.: Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, Australia, etc., ca...
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Nail houses also appear outside China

Posted on 12th October 20189th June 2020 by Main User

"Even as its economy slows, China’s investment in real estate and infrastructure has lost little steam. A common problem for developers, though, is that especially in and around major cities plum land parcels are often already occupied. The solution? Evict the residents. Sometimes developers or local governments compensate or relocate those they kick out, usually offering less than the origin...
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Book launch Unmaking China’s Development at Dutch Embassy

Posted on 16th May 201816th May 2018 by Main User

BEIJING On May 14, Peter Ho presented his new book 'Unmaking China's Development: The Function and Credibility of Institutions' at the Embassy of the Kingdom of The Netherlands (press release). The event was well-attended with representatives of the China Ministry of Natural Resources, Wall Street Journal, Ford Foundation, CITIC, Singapore Straits Times, and the Dutch Financial Daily. See below fo...
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Interview marathon with architect Rem Koolhaas

Posted on 16th April 201818th April 2018 by Main User

WUZHEN In the beautiful town of Wuzhen, Rem Koolhaas, architect of the CCTV Building in Beijing and the Pritzker Prize laureate, hosted an “interview marathon”. During this event he held non-stop interviews on new trends in China's agriculture with leading intellectuals, artists, writers, planners and officials. Koolhaas engaged in the interviews through a high-speed video-conference link, each in...
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Impressions from the triple session at the annual PLPR conference

Posted on 9th March 20177th April 2017 by Main User

Due to great interest of the session’s topic the PLPR organizers decided to allocate three slots for the session ‘Credibility of Informality’. This allowed for three inspiring sessions – chaired by Peter Ho, Rachelle Alterman and Benjamin Davy – with presentations on the related topics of planning, land and housing in a variety of contexts, including Israel, Serbia, China and Hong Kong. P...
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