This book investigates self-build housing for low and middle-income groups in urbanized areas in three different continents: South America (Brazil and Ecuador), Europe (the Netherlands, Albany, and Turkey) and Africa (Ethiopia, Egypt and Burkina Faso). Although the levels of social and economic prosperity and the related housing and urban context across these three continents are vastly different, there is a recurring central field of tension of governmental regulation vis- -vis societal self-regulation. The following question will be at the center of the book: How is the capacity for self-regulation in practices of self-build housing and facilities related to formal domains of governance and regulation and how can this relationship be optimized to create more socially sustainable forms of urbanization?

Using a broad international comparative perspective spanning multiple countries across South America, Europe and Africa, contributors explore resident-led self-building for low and middle income groups in urban areas. Although social, economic and urban prosperity differs across these contexts, there exists a recurring, cross-continental, tension between formal governance and self-regulation. Contributors examine the multi-faceted regulation dilemmas of self-building under the conditions of modernization and consider alternative methods of institutionalization, place-making and urban design, reconceptualizing the moral and managerial ownership of the city. Innovative in scope, this book provides an array of globalized solutions for navigating regulatory tensions in order to optimize sustainable development for the future