This term refers to all nonmarket processes, carried out under inhabitants’ initiative, management and control, that generate and/or improve adequate living spaces, housing and other elements of physical and social development, preferably without—and often despite—impediments posed by the state or other formal structure or authority. (For more information and cases, go to HIC general website and HIC-HLRN website. See also Anatomies of a Social Movement (Cairo: HIC-HLRN, 2006))