The institutional perspective on informal housing

The expanding study of informal housing offers multiple and often confusing perspectives on its emergence. The paper proposes an updated classification of the major perspectives available, namely, the economic, political-economic, post-colonial, and cultural. It continues to introduce the most debated perspective today, framed as the institutional perspective that embraces New-Institutionalist notions and understands the informal occupiers as agents who mobilize within fragmented and not-predetermined institutional and legal settings. The perspectives are examined regarding the case-study of Bir-Hadaj, a Bedouin informal settlement in Southern Israel that was studied through interviews and analysis of protocols and other reports. The conclusions portray the strength of the institutional perspective in analyzing the emergence and sustainment of informality, alongside the other perspectives.