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4/3/2015
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SLUMSand urban inequalities
How is a ‘Slum’ defined?• Our text book uses indicators of deprivation based on five conditions:
1. Poor access to improved water
2. Poor access to sanitation
3. Non – durable housing
4. Insufficient living area, and
5. Insecure tenure (lack of ownership)
• It is important to remember that even if it is defined as a ‘slum’, it is a community for the people living there…
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Origin of the word, ‘slum’• The word ‘slum’ appeared in London at the beginning of the 19thc, designating, initially, “a room of low repute”
• At the end of the 19thc, the word appears in the Oxford English Dictionary:
• The contemporary use of the word ‘slum’ is often inter‐changed with ‘shanties’, as in ‘shanty‐towns’
• Shanty‐towns are spontaneous settlements that develop in outskirts of towns
• While officially different, ‘shanties’ are now considered by some as a type of slum
“A street, alley, court, etc., situated in a crowded district of a town or
city and inhabited by poor people or a low class or by the very poor;
a number of these streets or courts forming a thickly populated
neighborhood or district where the housed and the conditions of life
are of a squalid and wretched character”
How is a ‘Slum’ defined?• The term ‘slum’ has loosely been used in the West when referring to housing areas that were once affluent, but have deteriorated
• This is not the same as the definition of ‘slum’ in the non‐western world
• Non‐western urban slums are not simply parallel to ‘poor areas’
• Contemporary slums of the non‐western world are informal settlements where newcomers to the city can find:
• affordable shelter
• enclaves of local culture, and
• support from a social network
• The United Nations (author of our text book) and many at the World Bank argue that slums should be eradicated
• Is that a solution? Is it achievable? Who would this serve most?
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How is a ‘Slum’ defined?• Despite the few positives a slum may provide for rural newcomers to the city, slums are characterized by many negatives, such as:
• Poverty
• Illiteracy
• Unemployment (official, taxable employment)
• Informal economies
• Crime
• Drug proliferation
• Disease
• ‘Waste’ collection
• Absence of disaster response and relief
• (fire, police, earth‐moving, etc.)
• Alternatively, it can be argued that these types of urban settlements represent the ultimate in the free‐movement of people, thus representing true democracy
• And that those cities that try to demolish them are totalitarian
What is the best course of action to address these types of settlements?
• Sub‐Saharan Africa (62.2%) followed by South Asia (42.9) rank the highest in the proportion of urban populations living in slums
• Latin America (27%) is much lower and we can relate this to the region’s demographic transition (as seen in the DTM)
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Planning as a response to slums
• Understanding the function in concept, and geography of slums in context is necessary
• Urban Planning techniques include;• Monitoring and predicting of the expansion
• Improvement of existing facilities
• Disaster prevention
• Environmental resource management
• And, if absolutely necessary, relocation of residents to formal housing
• A crucial requirement for effective Urban Planning is to have access to accurate and updated spatial data