Abstract
Squatter clearance – the destruction of buildings, and the removal of people who are identified by governmental auth orities as having no legal rights to the land on which they live – is one of the possible fates that the world’s one billion squatters face. Not all squatters experience clearance: long-term tolerance, legalisation, or in situ resettlement are other possible outcomes. The expected trajectory for a settlement affects its characteristics, as investment in housing upgrading is either encouraged or discouraged, and as different types of residents are attracted. Research on squatter clearance has taken a variety of approaches: explaining why government policies regarding clearance are adopted, exploring the social effects of these policies, and recording the conditions under which protests emerge against displacement. Research has had some influence on prevailing policies, by encouraging legalisation and squatter upgrading; however, a great deal of squatter clearance without resettlement still occurs. Much of the current literature includes squatter clearance within the broader term ‘forced eviction’. There are three principal modes of eviction with distinct dynamics: political, judicial, and bureaucratic.