From informality to formality to informality: Extralegal  Cover Image

From informality to formality to informality: Extralegal
From informality to formality to informality: Extralegal

Author(s): Anita Venter, Lochner Marais, Jan Cloete, John Ntema
Subject(s): Social Sciences
Published by: Urbanistični inštitut Republike Slovenije
Keywords: land transfers; extralegal land transfers; property; De Soto; World Bank; economic sociology

Summary/Abstract: The paper discusses the nature of extralegal land transfers in an upgraded informal settlement in South Africa. The paper investigates these extralegal transfers in terms of the notion of property and property law as a social construct. The paper researches two main but contradictory conclusions, namely that either extralegal transfers are the result of the current social construct of property (also related to the historic lack of formal property for black people in South Africa) and / or that they are the result of the excessively high transaction costs of a formal transfer process.

  • Issue Year: 25/2014
  • Issue No: Supp
  • Page Range: S148–S161
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: English