Author Description

This research mainly deals with analyzing the urban governance situation of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and a rapidly growing mega-city with limited financial resources. The research focuses on the analysis of statutory planning processes and the relevant institutional and legal setting prevailing in Dhaka city, the potentials of social self-regulation in unplanned settlements to maintain or establish the functionality of the urban fabric, pros and cons of informal fringe development in the context of weak city governance and on the opportunity to make interfaces for integrating institutions and strategies of social regulation into the statutory planning system. Brief on land management and real estate market are also discussed in this research. Two case studies were selected to examine the impact of the prevailing politico-institutional urban governance setting in Dhaka. Inner city area redevelopment process by the citizens and informal fringe development processes were thoroughly investigated for this research over a period of four years. Informality in particular is examined as a central focus in examining all the processes and actions in urban governance. In addition, at the beginning of this dissertation the theoretical discussion on institutional issues related to city governance, land governance and informality is reviewed and compared with the situation prevailing in Dhaka. These theoretical issues are positioned in the context of Dhaka city in the concluding parts.