Pragmatic planning : extending water and electricity networks in irregular settlements of Lima
Résumé
To understand how informal settlements access to urban services in emerging cities requires to go beyond theoretical debates on urban planning and on liberalisation of utilities. Spontaneous urbanisation challenges traditional urban and infrastructure planning by imposing a built-up framework and organised population. In Lima, in order to extend their networks, service companies develop innovative technologies and techniques to adapt to unplanned contexts. They also enter into informal governance arrangements to work and negotiate with CBOs. This pragmatism has the potential to create institutions for a planning practice in coherence with the urban fabric. However these ad hoc sociotechnical practices are ignored by official authorities in charge of foreseeing the urban development of Lima, thus hampering the possibility of an innovative planning.