Conceptualising (im)material urban poverty and relational change through an exploration of Slum Dwellers International’s approach to addressing urban poverty, within and between Muungano wa Wanavijiji in Kenya and Community Savers in England

Abstract

This thesis investigates aspects of urban poverty and development related to how women-led urban social movements (USMs) and their activists experience urban poverty and contribute to development dynamics across the global north and the global south. The study is influenced by debates within comparative urban studies and undertakes a qualitative case study of two women-led USMs, both affiliated to Slum Dwellers International (SDI). One is the long-standing movement, Muungano wa Wanavijiji (Muungano) in Kenya and the other is an emerging movement in northwest England, the Community Savers (CS) network. Building from existing literature on urban poverty, the thesis advances a conceptual framework of material (economic in nature) and immaterial (social, political and psychological in nature) aspects of urban poverty, which enables research across the two case study contexts. The key findings draw from audio recordings of learning exchanges that took place between Muungano and CS members and a data collection period of ethnographic embeddedness within the CS network. The key findings reveal the fundamental significance of psychological relations to how people experience urban poverty across both cases, particularly underlining the harmful impacts related to relational patterns of marginalisation, stigma, isolation and discrimination. The SDI praxis is found to be an effective, bottom-up relational approach that challenges these harmful relational patterns providing an overarching relational structure that strengthens relationships in profound ways at the individual, communal and collective levels. This results in expanding self- and collective confidence, worth and resilience for individuals and communities, which enables SDI-affiliated groups to more effectively address their material needs. The analysis reveals how although material aspects are important, addressing material aspects alone does not sufficiently address immaterial aspects. Considering SDI’s approach to addressing urban poverty across both contexts, it shows how when immaterial aspects are engaged with, this can and often does contribute to improved psychological and social relations, the strengthening of collective, political power and to more effectively addressing a community’s material needs. Addressing immaterial aspects of urban poverty is essential for the well-being of low-income urban residents and for initiating processes of urban development that more comprehensively address urban poverty. The thesis closes by advancing the conceptualisation of ‘(im)material urban poverty’, which represents the interrelations between the immaterial and material aspects found to be intrinsic within experiences of urban poverty through this research. In its entirety, this study engages Mosse’s (2010) relational approach to persistent poverty and inequality, and advances it, by showing how persistent urban poverty and inequality can be defined as a consequence of historically developed economic, political and psychological relations.

Date of Award	25 Sept 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Diana Mitlin (Main Supervisor) & Nicola Banks (Co Supervisor)