Value Without Title

This paper examines how value is produced and distributed in informal urban land markets under legal uncertainty, drawing on Katanga, a dense inner-city settlement in Kampala, Uganda. Using 110 interviews, survey data, and spatial mapping, the study analyzes how land acquires economic value, how transactions are legitimized without formal title, and how rental markets distribute gains and risks. Theoretically, the paper brings Polanyi’s concept of fictitious commodities, Pistor’s theory of legal coding, and Ang’s framework of directed improvisation into dialogue, arguing that centrality, not legality, is the primary driver of land value in Katanga.

The findings reveal a sophisticated informal tenure system anchored in documentary recognition, temporal legitimacy, and social endorsement, but one that structurally advantages landlords over tenants. The paper concludes that informal land markets are not failures awaiting formalization, but co-evolving institutional systems that reflect uneven access to the legal infrastructure of capitalism. The appropriate policy response is incremental extension of legal protections that recognize existing value, enforce tenant rights, and avoid exclusionary displacement.