Whose land builds the city? Spatial politics and power dynamics in negotiating space for infrastructure during informal settlement regularization in Mbarali, Tanzania

This study asks a critical question at the heart of urban transformation in Tanzania: Whose land builds the city? Focusing on informal settlement regularization in Mbarali, it investigates how spatial politics and power dynamics shape the negotiation of land for infrastructure allocations. Drawing on Lefebvre's conception of space as socially produced, and based on qualitative research in eight peri-urban settlements, the study finds that local people are not merely beneficiaries of infrastructure but co-producers of urban space; negotiating, contesting, and contributing land through practices rooted in social obligation and moral reasoning. An ethic of good neighbourliness underpins many voluntary land contributions, where giving land is regarded as both a civic duty and a performance of citizenship. However, as land becomes scarcer and more valuable, these moral arrangements are increasingly replaced by transactional and commodified exchanges. Therefore, the negotiation of space reveals underlying power dynamics that determine who contribute land, under what terms, and who ultimately benefits. These spatial inequalities are often mediated by informal authorities who translate state planning frameworks into local decisions, while simultaneously reinforcing or resisting existing hierarchies. By centering the question Whose land builds the city , the study argues that negotiating space for infrastructure during informal settlement regularization is not a neutral planning exercise but a political process shaped by spatial struggles, commodification, and embedded power relations. It recommends institutionalizing community-led land negotiation frameworks to directly address spatial inequalities and power asymmetries and ensure a more equitable distribution of the burdens and benefits of city building. • Shows how local people negotiate and contribute land during regularization. • Reveals moral and financial logics shaping land decisions in informal areas. • Demonstrates how power dynamics influence who gives land and under what terms. • Explains how communities co-produce urban space with planners and local leaders. • Exposes uneven shifts from goodwill to monetized land negotiations in dense zones.