VERTICAL REDEVELOPMENT AND THE EROSION OF INFORMAL SAFETY NETS IN PAKISTANI MOHALLAS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY OF RESIDENTS’ EXPERIENCE

Abstract

Mohallas, the mixed-use, low-rise, dense neighbourhoods of older Pakistani cities, are long-established and characterised by mutual aid among neighbours, such as lending food or money, minding children or elderly relatives, and responding to emergencies. The vertical density of these areas has slowly been rising over the last decade, driven by builder-floor conversion, society-led redevelopment and high-rise replacement. This exploratory study aims to understand how this transition is perceived by the residents and the impact of self-contained and taller buildings on the informal safety nets. A sequential mixed-methods design (household survey of 120 households in three different redevelopment intensities; semi-structured interviews with 18 participants) is used to compare measures of neighbourly reciprocity, trust, childcare, elder support, and emergency assistance. Each indicator declines steadily as redevelopment intensity increases: the share of households borrowing or lending informally falls from 78% in low-rise lanes to 25% in high-rise clusters, and the mean number of neighbours known by name falls from 28 to 8. Themes in the qualitative data indicate four mechanisms: the disappearance of shared thresholds, tenure changes, gated and access-controlled design, and the replacement of reciprocal support services with paid services. We consider implications for redevelopment policy, design guidelines and resident led interventions, and limitations to causality and sampling.