Informal Settlements in Damascus: Values and Practices of Inhabitants

While informal settlements in Syria are not a recent phenomenon, it was presented through most previous research as a social problem. Researchers focused on them being symptoms resulting from many legal, economic, planning, and social factors. Moreover, this research focused on citizen-based information through qualitative methods due to the lack of data available. These conversations were valuable to this research to uncover many unique values and practices in two informal settlements in Damascus. It investigates the social interactions at personal, neighborhood and city levels to assess the forces behind the emergence and change of the values. Many factors should be considered while researching the social dimension of the topic, such as temporality, homogeneity, or heterogeneity, belonging, and social isolation. Thus, guaranteed residents’ involvement is crucial in future research before taking any actions that may not serve the inhabitants—also identifying informal settlements as possibilities. Furthermore, this paper highlights the importance of understanding informal Syrian settlements as a physical term of its social components and norms and decreasing the gap between citizens, researchers, urban planners, and decision-makers.