Housing the poor : the right to the city and policy arrangements in urban Indonesia More than one billion people live in slums and it remains a distant dream to achieve adequate housing for all as articulated in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 11). Sound housing policies for the poor do exist but require an appropriate governance framework and a normative orientation. This book analyses in detail half a century of international discussions on housing slums and informal settlements identifies policy phases (self help enabling) and discusses pros and cons of applied measures globally and in the context of Indonesia. It contributes to a better understanding of interlinkages between urban governance and housing policies by employing the analytical framework of policy arrangements and by developing a normative compass based on Henri Lefebvres right to the city. Empirically it examines and compares housing strategies (social housing resettlements slum upgrading) and modes of governance in two case studies the Indonesian cities Surabaya and Surakarta. The findings show that specific policy arrangements oriented towards a normative goal are crucial for the emergence of sound housing policies and a societal transformation that benefits marginalised groups