Understanding Land Value through Investigating Redevelopment of Informal Areas in Egypt

Urban redevelopment of informal areas within the context of autocratic regimes has prompted debates regarding their impact on fair distribution of land rights, decision-making rights, and the costs and benefits of redevelopment. The land and/or land-use conflict resulting from the actualization of these debates in urban practice are triggered by diverse understandings of land value where different meanings, roles, and concepts are assigned to the value of land. The aim of this research is to understand how land value is conceptualised and mobilised in urban practice, where the scope of research focuses on the context of urban redevelopment of informal areas in Egypt. The research uses the theoretical framing of both Critical Realism and Islamic Ontology to understand (1) causal powers of structures/agents in conceptualising and mobilising land value; (2) underlying value systems shaping communal perceptions of land rights; and (3) actions shaping conflict and development aspirations. The methodology is framed around intensive case-study research to investigate how land value is conceptualised and mobilised in the redevelopment of informal areas in Egypt. The empirical domain is selected in the controversial redevelopment project of El-Warraq Island in Greater Cairo Region. Through spatial, documentary, and thematic qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews, the research identifies different components of land value from diverse perceptual positions; the multiple roles that land plays in economic, political, social, and environmental structures; and its mobilisation on the agent/individualistic level. The research operationalised different components of land value using a pluralistic pragmatic approach and operationalised different structures using a realist constructionism approach. The research concluded by synthesising structures shaping the contested dynamics of urban redevelopment in Egypt and the root causes of land-use conflict in the context of uneven power relations between informal inhabitants and authoritarian state; thus, contributing to the identification of appropriate rationales for land conflict resolution.