This book examines urbanization in Haiti as a laboratory of crisis and resilience, where the absence of state capacity collides with the creativity of grassroots actors. It reveals how communities, women, and youth mobilize solidarity, informal practices, and everyday governance to compensate for failing institutions and fragmented planning.

Through case studies of informal settlements, vernacular infrastructures, and survival economies, the book shows how urban residents produce their own forms of security, social innovation, and collective organization. These practices challenge conventional understandings of sovereignty and territorial authority while opening pathways toward more inclusive urban futures.

Combining urban studies, political geography, and development theory, it proposes a new vision of territorial governance that values local knowledge, shared sovereignties, and grassroots planning. Offering insights relevant across the Global South, this book appeals to scholars, practitioners, and policymakers engaged in debates on urban resilience, postcolonial governance, and territorial justice.

Explores urbanization and governance in fragile states through the case of Haiti Bridges theory and practice to rethink territorial sovereignty and resilience Offers policy insights for equitable and participatory urban futures

Autorentext

Christophe Providence is Professor of Economics and Territorial Governance at the Institut Universitaire des Sciences, Haiti. His research focuses on urban governance, public policy evaluation, and territorial sovereignty in fragile states. He has published widely on Caribbean development and is actively engaged in academic and policy debates across the region

Inhalt

Chapter 1: General Introduction.- Part I: Territories in Crisis: Diagnosing Urban Fragility.- Chapter 2: Urbanization Without the State: Dynamics, Tensions, and Paradoxes.- Chapter 3: Broken Institutions and Fragmented Planning: Public Policies and Territorial Governance in Haiti.- Chapter 4: Living and Surviving the City: Between Informality, Vulnerability, and Territorialization.- Chapter 5: Territories in Practice: Fragmented Sovereignties and Situated Governance in Haitian Cities.- Part II: Territories in Motion: Alternative Logics of Urban Production.- Chapter 6: Grassroots Urbanism and Community Resilience: Between Normative Frameworks and Institutional Disconnection.- Chapter 7: The Power of the Margins: Hybrid Actors and Informal Politics.- Chapter 8: The Solidarity Economy as Territorial Practice.- Part III: Reclaiming Planning: Toward Situated and Inclusive Urban Governance.- Chapter 9: Community Self-Organization in Popular Territories: Between Improvisation, Solidarity, and Proximity Governance.- Chapter 10: Planning from Below: Local Knowledge and Co-Design.- Chapter 11: Rebuilding Urban Futures: Policy Proposals and Territorial Sovereignty.- Chapter 12: General Conclusion.