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This paper examines the assumption that redevelopment of slum settlements results in improved housing quality, by conducting a longitudinal study of an in-situ redevelopment policy in Ahmedabad, India. Under an in-situ redevelopment policy, apartment-style housing is built on the same site of original slum settlements. This paper examines housing quality in the same settlement, pre- and post-redevelopment, in comparison to a wait-listed slum that did not undergo redevelopment, to ascertain redevelopment impact on housing quality. It further compares housing quality of a resettled community at two time periods, 2.5- and 8.5-years post-redevelopment to determine durability of housing quality changes over medium-term. I use a mixed-methods protocol employing a standardized observer-based housing quality assessment tool with subscales, to identify specific aspects of housing quality that improved/deteriorated and gathered qualitative data from interviews and focus groups. The analyses reveal an improvement in overall housing conditions post-redevelopment, in the short term, though this improvement is not uniform across subscales. However, this improvement does not sustain as redeveloped settlement shows severe levels of deterioration over mid-term. The qualitative findings suggest that in redeveloped settlements, residents feel a diminished sense of control and ownership that precludes them from investing in structural improvements and maintenance of settlements.

Urban-led change for sustainability is a key site of intervention in delivering the ambitions of the Sustainable Development Goals. Within this broad discourse, four umbrella concepts have emerged in recent decades: urban sustainability, urban transitions, urban transformation and urban resilience. This literature review aims to offer a qualitative assessment of the types of interventions currently being advocated for in academic-led literature. Firstly, the paper presents an overview of the concepts and summarises current gaps; secondly, it uses Donella Meadows' Leverage Points as analytical framework to categorise and discuss interventions supported in the literature. Our findings indicate that although the literature advocates for systemic change towards sustainability as an outcome of a large palette of urban interventions, less consideration is given to the means of achieving these. The findings highlight the need to focus on processes as much as on outcomes when advocating, devising or implementing interventions. This requires a process of understanding and negotiating trade-offs and the different worldviews and values that underpin them. Addressing this entails going beyond technocratic skills through cultivating reflexivity, effective communities of practice and new forms of organising for knowledge production, as well as interrogate our roles and agency as urban researchers.

China is facing great challenges in providing decent living conditions for the elderly. The effects of housing wealth and the social welfare system on elderly households' consumption behaviors have been widely explored, but little is known about the heterogeneous effects of various wealth sources on consumptions of different economic groups of the elderly. Taking into account regional differences, this paper investigated the extent to which housing wealth, financial wealth, and social welfare influence the consumption behaviors of the elderly of various economic status. We employed the linear mixed model estimation and quantile regression by using the China Household Finance Survey data collected from 2011 to 2015. Results showed that a large urban–rural gap exists between the eastern, central, and western regions of China. Housing wealth exerts limited effects on the urban elderly households' consumption behaviors but has significant positive effects on the rural elderly households' consumption. The financial wealth and pension may offset part of the consumption inequality generated from annual household income. An increasing pension contributes more to medical and health care consumption for the poor households. Policymakers need to enhance the social welfare system to take care of the most vulnerable elderly group in the first place.