Slums Studies Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

"""Artykuł odnosi się do etycznych dylematów, które pojawiają się w obrębie turystyki kulturowej. W tekście krytycznej analizie poddano niewłaściwe zachowania uczestników turystyki kulturowej (których z tej racji nie należy nazywać... more

This article examines a cinematic artefact from 1957 titled The Housing Program of Iraq, which contains rare footage of sarifa (reed and mud) settlements inhabited by rural migrants in mid-century Baghdad. The film, which was never... more

This article examines a cinematic artefact from 1957 titled The Housing Program of Iraq, which contains rare footage of sarifa (reed and mud) settlements inhabited by rural migrants in mid-century Baghdad. The film, which was never finished, was produced as a collaboration between the Greek architect Constantinos A. Doxiadis and the director Demetrios Gaziades, who shot and edited the footage between Baghdad and Athens. Through this film Doxiadis intended to complement the Doxiadis Associates’ (DA) entry for the Iraq National Housing Exhibition and also to promote the modern housing projects designed by DA. In this period, various statist actors used the representational medium of documentary film in an attempt to redefine the boundaries of Iraqi citizenship. This film, thus, offered a cinematic portal into an other Baghdad, which was staged as the problem of development. Subsequent scenes narrated the solution to these neighbourhoods and positioned a family in a modern low-income house to animate the film’s developmental fantasy. The film projected universal Iraqi home ownership as a form of citizenship where the house was an instrument to facilitate financial, legal, and social agreements between rural migrants and the Iraqi state. By interrogating the methodological question of how to assemble an archive of ephemeral and subaltern places, this essay suggests expanding our notion of historiographic evidence to understand the intertwined relationships between the politics of development and architecture, and their representation in media.

Aim: With the projected increases in slum population, the demand for urban upgrading interventions is expected to grow. The main aim of this study was to seek a noble effort to reduce proliferation of informal settlements and slums. The... more

Aim: With the projected increases in slum population, the demand for urban upgrading interventions is expected to grow. The main aim of this study was to seek a noble effort to reduce proliferation of informal settlements and slums. The findings of this study might be useful to the Kenyan government in providing knowledge on livelihood strategies adopted by Kibera residents after slum upgrading programme. In addition, information was provided on the extent to which the identified factors influence the occupancy levels for the government to make adjustments that will ensure high occupancy levels are reported in the future. Study scope: The study sought to evaluate the effects of livelihood strategies in slum upgrading project on the welfare of Kibera residents. The study considered four independent variables; job opportunities, enterprise development, provision of public services and self-help project funding. Findings: The findings are consistent with the characteristic of slums whe...

A key contemporary issue in International Development lies in questioning the adequacy for using the Capability Approach in differentiated cultural contexts. This paper argues that the socio-historical construction of the Capability... more

A key contemporary issue in International Development lies in questioning the adequacy for using the Capability Approach in differentiated cultural contexts. This paper argues that the socio-historical construction of the Capability Approach has been mostly embedded in liberalism and individualism – which led to the acceptance and use of the concept in the Western world but also beyond, in differentiated contexts where the sole actions of individuals are explored as if they showed and revealed the full extent of the influence of social institutions or external circumstances.
As a result, neglecting the cultural aspects and the institutional factors shaping motivations highlights a consequent gap in the capability space which is illustrated in this paper through the case study of Kathmandu urban slums. It appears that the Capability Approach considers the freedom of choosing a life one’s has reasons to value as the main determinant of slum dwellers’ strive for self-realization. However, reasons for valuing a certain life over another engage with broader processes at the collective level.
Consequently, approaches to tailoring the concept of capability to different strands of International Development and Development Studies may encompass a common bias – a bias relating to the socio-historical construction of a concept which, in spite of its apparent generalizability, presents a range of risks as to how collective norms, identities and belief systems are incorporated in defining the lives people value and how they achieve to arrange these lives for themselves.
I conclude that future research should attempt at shifting the focus from an individual-based to a social-system-based investigation of what determines and influences people’s decisions and reasons for living the way they do.

Article paru en 2007. Auteurs : Christophe Aubertin, Merril Sinéus. Objets de nombreuses études et articles, les pays dits « émergents » comme l'Inde sont aussi soumis aux mécanismes du libéralisme et de la mondialisation, comme ils... more

Article paru en 2007. Auteurs : Christophe Aubertin, Merril Sinéus.
Objets de nombreuses études et articles, les pays dits « émergents » comme l'Inde sont aussi soumis aux mécanismes du libéralisme et de la mondialisation, comme ils concentrent dans leurs villes d'importantes inégalités sociales. Le sociologue américain Mike Davis indique que « les cinq grandes métropoles d'Asie du Sud (Karachi, Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta et Dacca) contiennent à elles seules près de quinze mille zones urbaines de type bidonville, soit une population totale de plus de vingt millions de personnes» 1. C'est sur leur territoire que se manifestent à grande échelle et de façon complexe les difficultés des habitants les plus pauvres. Mais ne pourraient-elles pas devenir des terrains d'expérience du développement urbain durable ? Animés par ce questionnement, nous relaterons ici une part de notre expérience de jeunes architectes européens dans la ville de Pune, en Inde.

Im England des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts etabliert sich nicht nur der Gebrauch des Wortes »Slum«, sondern auch ein populärer Diskurs, der den Slum als »Anderes« der westlichen Zivilisation dar-stellte; eine dystopische Sichtweise auf den... more

Im England des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts etabliert sich nicht nur der Gebrauch des Wortes »Slum«, sondern auch ein populärer Diskurs, der den Slum als »Anderes« der westlichen Zivilisation dar-stellte; eine dystopische Sichtweise auf den Slum, als Schattenseite der Industrialisierung und Urba-nisierung und vor allem als Schattenseite einer Vision von Moderne, die gerade das hinter sich lassen möchte, was der Slum in diesen Diskursen symbolisiert: Das Gegenteil von Ordnung, Fortschritt und Hygiene. Diese dystopischen Slumdiskurse kehren heute wieder, wenngleich mit den empirischen Daten der UN-HABITAT-Studie Challenge of Slums (2003) untermauert und übertragen auf geopo-litisch gänzlich veränderte Verhältnisse. So findet beispielsweise der Soziologe Zygmunt Bauman, dass das Ergebnis von Globalisierungs-und Modernisierungsprozessen zwangsläufig urbane Müll-halden produziert, wo die Ausgegrenzten der Moderne, wie Abfall, der nicht mehr gebraucht wird, abgeladen werden. Mike Davis übernimmt in seinem Planet der Slums gleichfalls einen rhetori-schen Gestus, der die »üblichen Verdächtigen« anklagt (Globalisierung, IWF, Weltbank, Neolibera-lismus), aber zugleich auch prophetisch in die Zukunft deutet: In Davis' dystopischer Vision gleicht die unaufhaltsame »wildwüchsige« Slumisierung von Megastädten des globalen Südens einer Na-turkatastrophe, die das 21. Jahrhundert maßgeblich prägen wird. In dieser Hinsicht sind Davis' und Baumans dystopische Sichtweisen aber auch Fortschreibungen dessen, was bereits im 19. Jahrhun-dert diskursiv angelegt war. Davis beschreibt die Slums der globalisierten Welt des 21. Jahrhunderts tatsächlich auch in Rückgriff auf die viktorianischen Slums des 19. Jahrhunderts, in einem Kapitel, welches »Zurück zu Dickens« heißt, wenn er schreibt: »Im Prozess der Urbanisierung der Dritten Welt wiederholen und vermischen sich die Dynamiken ihrer Vorläufer aus dem 19. und 20. Jahrhun-dert in Europa und Nordamerika.« Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts war es aber nicht nur Charles Dickens, sondern vor allem sein Zeitge-nosse, der Journalist Henry Mayhew, der eine erste detaillierte Bestandsaufnahme Londoner Slums in London Labour and the London Poor (1851) vornahm und somit einen Slumdiskurs begründete, der zunächst maßgebend werden sollte. Mayhew, der »soziologische Dickens«, wird von einigen Stadtsoziologen als Pionier der Stadtforschung a bezeichnet. Der kulturgeschichtliche Kontext die-ser Pionierarbeit war die christlich geprägte Reformbewegung, der auch Mayhew angehörte und dessen Buch eigentlich nur die Spitze eines Bergs an reformistisch geprägter Slum-Literatur, Slum-Berichterstattung und Slum-Reportage ist. Eine Diskursanalyse dieser zahlreichen journalistisch-reformistischen Auseinandersetzungen mit Slums im 19. Jahrhundert lieferten die Literaturwissen-schaftler Peter Stallybrass und Allon White. Der Slum, so Stallybrass und White, stand in diesen frühen Diskursen semantisch immer in Verbindung zu Schmutz und moralischem Laster; er wurde als ein Sündenpfuhl aus Prostitution, Kriminalität und Barbarei, aber gleichzeitig auch als dreckige Kloake, in der sich allerlei Krankheiten herausbildeten, beschrieben. Diese biblisch/babylonische Assoziationskette – Schmutz-Sünde-Krankheit – war also konstitu-tiv für frühe Slumdiskurse und Mayhews zwar detaillierter, aber dennoch moralisierender, in diesen a http://parapluie.de/archiv/stadt parapluie no. 28 (Herbst 2012). http://parapluie.de/archiv/slums/slumdarstellung/ issn 1439–1163, © 1997–2011 parapluie & die autorinnen und autoren. alle rechte vorbehalten.

Tooba invites you for a presentation and discussion “Ramlet Bulaq: Scenarios of Urban and Social Transformations”. The research questions the history and patterns of the social and urban transformation in Ramlet Bulaq, Cairo. Moreover the... more

Tooba invites you for a presentation and discussion “Ramlet Bulaq: Scenarios of Urban and Social Transformations”. The research questions the history and patterns of the social and urban transformation in Ramlet Bulaq, Cairo. Moreover the research is questioning the different future scenarios and possibilities of changes in its urban and social composition. The research methodology based on urban anthropology methods. The final research will be released October 2015.
Teamwork: (Nouran El-Marsafy - Abdel Rahman Hegazy - Omnia Khalil)
Presentation and discussion will take place in Megawra El Khaliefa on Monday, July 27th, 2015, 6:00 pm.

Este capítulo trata de la ciudad informal, de los asentamientos informales, o, si lo prefieren, de la ciudad oculta en sentido metafórico en tanto que construcción social del paisaje. Específicamente, analiza algunas situaciones dentro... more

Este capítulo trata de la ciudad informal, de los asentamientos informales, o, si lo prefieren, de la ciudad oculta en sentido metafórico en tanto que construcción social del paisaje. Específicamente, analiza algunas situaciones dentro del contexto brasileño. Sabemos que lo oculto es algo desconocido, inesperado, no revelado. Los paisajes de la ciudad informal, en realidad, no están ocultos, pues son muy visibles en las ciudades donde se encuentran, específicamente en el caso de Brasil. Sin embargo, los asentamientos informales en Brasil sufrieron y aún sufren, en cierto modo, un largo proceso de ocultación por parte del Estado y de gran parte de la sociedad, que los considera indeseables y, por tanto, no visibles, en línea con lo apuntado en la Introducción al presente libro. La ciudad informal, oculta para la mayoría de los que pertenecen a la ciudad formal u ocultada por los que no la viven, por los que no les han enseñado a mirarla o que no desean mirarla, es el objeto de este capítulo. Cabe señalar que este es un tema sobre el cuál abundan los análisis socioeconómicos, pero son pocos los análisis espaciales, centrados en su construcción, en la materialidad de este paisaje. En este contexto, y con la intención de incidir en este análisis, el capítulo se centra en el estudio de los asentamientos informales y su inserción en el paisaje urbano con la intención de iluminar algunos de sus códigos espaciales y asociarlos a la vivencia del lugar. El capítulo está subdividido en tres partes, que se desarrollan de la siguiente forma: la primera, con el título de los paisajes de la aglomeración, analiza el caso de las favelas; la segunda, con el título de los paisajes de interferencia, estudia la realidad de los cortiços insertados en los tejidos urbanos y otros modos de apropiación informal del espacio formal; y, a modo de conclusión, se presentan los paisajes de la proliferación, basándose en la conformación del paisaje urbano desde la mirada global de los asentamientos de la ciudad formal y de la informal y desde la necesidad de reconocer la ciudad a partir de la comprensión de ambas realidades.

The book highlights important urban development issues in Punjab such as urbanisation, slums, housing, poverty, urban governance, development, infrastructure/ services etc and suggests major reforms to improve quality of life in urban... more

The book highlights important urban development issues in Punjab such as urbanisation, slums, housing, poverty, urban governance, development, infrastructure/ services etc and suggests major reforms to improve quality of life in urban areas.

The majority of urban inhabitants in low-and middle-income country (LMIC) cities live in deprived urban areas. However, policy efforts and the monitoring of global goals and agendas such as the United Nation's Sustainable Development... more

The majority of urban inhabitants in low-and middle-income country (LMIC) cities live in deprived urban areas. However, policy efforts and the monitoring of global goals and agendas such as the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and UN-Habitat New Urban Agenda are hindered by the unavailability of statistical and spatial data at metropolitan, city and sub-city scales. Deprivation is a complex and multidimensional concept, and presently, there is a strong focus within the existing literature on household-level (including individual) deprivation and less on area-level deprivation and this is problematic because deprivation at the area and household-level are known to interrelate and result in multiple challenges for individuals and communities. Within this scoping review, we build on existing literature that focuses on household-or area-level deprivation to arrive at a combined understanding of how urban deprivation is defined in relation to LMIC cities. The scoping review of existing literature was used in conjunction with local stakeholder workshops to produce a framework titled "Domains of Deprivation Framework". The Domains of Deprivation Framework conceptualizes urban deprivation at three different scales, including at the household scale, within the area scale and at the area connect scale. It includes nine domains, (1) SocioEconomic Status and (2) Housing Domains (Household scale); (3) Social Hazards & Assets, (4) Physical Hazards & Assets, (5) Unplanned Urbanization and (6) Contamination (Within Area scale); and (7) Infrastructure, (8) Facilities & Services and (9) City Governance (Area Connect scale). The Domains of Deprivation Framework is designed to support diverse urban, health, poverty, and development initiatives globally to characterize and address deprivation in LMIC cities from a holistic perspective, combining traditional data sources (e.g., surveys or census data) with new data sources (e.g., Earth Observation data).

The slums of Rio de Janeiro have been the stage of recent urban changes related to tourism, chiefly those linked to the large sports events such the 2014 Football Cup, and the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The visiting by Brazilian... more

The slums of Rio de Janeiro have been the
stage of recent urban changes related to tourism,
chiefly those linked to the large sports
events such the 2014 Football Cup, and the
2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The
visiting by Brazilian and foreign people was
always significant in the city, and the increase
of the flow in the slums is a relevant fact. This
article is part of a work of research that has
been mapping the effects of urban mobility
work, done in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, and
of the security policies implemented along
with the UPPs and their effects on tourism and
on the image these areas of the city have. The
work shifted its focus to the study of slums in
Rio’s South Side, which has always been the
scenario of greater tourist activity. The research
has been mapping hostels, bars, restaurants,
parks and tourist tracks, seeking data on their
locations, and on who the entrepreneurs behind
them are, as well as on the importance
of community participation and the public
policies currently active in the process, also
seeking to understand the transformations
that have triggered a process of gentrification
in these communities.

This article examines gecekondus 2 in Turkey in the context of space factor by drawing upon the basic arguments of sociology of space. It shows the significant role of space in the integration of gecekondus into the urban area and... more

This article examines gecekondus 2 in Turkey in the context of space factor by drawing upon the basic arguments of sociology of space. It shows the significant role of space in the integration of gecekondus into the urban area and analyzes the relationship between space and society within the context of gecekondu settlements. The main hypothesis of this article is that space, with its physical and social features, is one of the main factors that affects the reconstruction process of gecekondus and it influences the social and economic integration of residents of gecekondu neighborhoods. The argument of this study depends on a comparison of two gecekondu areas in the context of sociology of space. The first gecekondu district is called Kadifekale which is a deprived inner-city area, and the other one is called Gumuspala which is located in the periphery of Izmir. The data that are discussed in the article are collected as a result of a field research. The argument of this study is based on the conceptual frame of Henri Lefebvre's term the trialectics of being. The article discusses the consolidation of gecekondus by examining the relationship of space, society and time. As a result of the research, the article asserts that beyond time factor, space is one of the main factors affecting the consolidation of gecekondu neighborhoods into urban environments, while it is constructed by society.

Drawing from the problem of typology creation in its current forms that can be found mainly in policy papers, Berescu offers a critical overview of some of the ways in which the places where impoverished Roma live are named, then labelled... more

Drawing from the problem of typology creation in its current forms that can be found mainly in policy papers, Berescu offers a critical overview of some of the ways in which the places where impoverished Roma live are named, then labelled and categorized. The delimitation and counting of extreme poverty areas is a highly contentious issue in itself, but admitting that racial segregation exists is an even more difficult one. This is why official documents tend to circumvent the problem of slums and ghettos in Romania and, to a lesser extent, in Eastern Europe. By analysing the underlying methods and the language of reports and strategies we can comprehend the ways in which new ghettos are formed and concealed, and how they will be governed.

Improving the slum areas and ameliorating the livelihood situation of the poor people, by legislating social inclusion policies, is one of the main challenges facing the governments in the developing countries, whereby Egypt has not been... more

Improving the slum areas and ameliorating the livelihood situation of the poor people, by legislating social inclusion policies, is one of the main challenges facing the governments in the developing countries, whereby Egypt has not been an exception. In the last four decades, inclusive-housing policies were not well-represented in the political agenda of the Egyptian governments, hence, the up-growth of slums (informal settlements) were so much recognized and this is due to socio-economic conditions such as urbanization and population growth.
Seemingly, the political agenda of the Egyptian government under President Abd El-Fattah El-Sisi aimed to eradicate slums by 2030 by adopting inclusive housing policies. The rehabilitation project is one of the policies that is taken by the Egyptian government for developing the informal settlements. This was done by relocating the inhabitants from informal settlements to other new cities.
Thereafter, this paper is one of the attempts to study the slums in Egypt by addressing the responds of the evacuated families that have been moved from Duweiqa and Manshit Nasser to houses in the periphery of Mokattam’s city at Al-Asmarat district.
The study aims at investigating “How the evacuated families respond to the inclusive-housing policy of rehabilitation by relocating them from Duweiqa and Manshiet Nasser to Al-Asmarat district?” To answer this question I will employ the former mode of data collection, such as a survey (online/offline), statistical analysis and literature researches to a better understanding of the Egyptian society's underlying opinions in measuring to what extent they are satisfied by the inclusive-housing policies of the government. The paper will divided into 3 main axis: Firstly, analyzing the results of the survey. Secondly, based upon the analysis I am going to measure to what extend the people are satisfied from the government policies and whether those policies were effective or symbolic. Thirdly, I will conclude my paper with findings and recommendations.
Keywords: Slums, Inclusive Housing Policy, Rehabilitation, Relocation, Al-Asmarat district, Egypt.

O livro foi resultado de uma pesquisa conjunta realizada pelo INCT Observatório das Metrópoles e pelo Laboratório de Estudos e Projetos Urbanos e Regionais da Universidade Federal do ABC, com equipes de nove estados que discutiram a... more

O livro foi resultado de uma pesquisa conjunta realizada pelo INCT Observatório das Metrópoles e pelo Laboratório de Estudos e Projetos Urbanos e Regionais da Universidade Federal do ABC, com equipes de nove estados que discutiram a implementação do Programa de Aceleração do Crescimento, em sua modalidade voltada para a urbanização de assentamentos precários, em Belém, Belo Horizonte, Curitiba, Fortaleza, Porto Alegre, Recife, Grande ABC, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador e São Paulo.

This article probes the extent to which social-class stratification, moral thresholds and liminal spaces and bodies played a role in the survival of the East End in the late-nineteenth century. Arthur Morrison's fiction, in this sense,... more

This article probes the extent to which social-class stratification, moral thresholds and liminal spaces and bodies played a role in the survival of the East End in the late-nineteenth century. Arthur Morrison's fiction, in this sense, builds awareness of neglect and degeneration, and highlights the need for renewal and restoration in the East End. Morrison's style is distinctive for telling the story of East Enders from an insider's point of view and translating the " stranger's literature " into a more intimate and personal experience. Undertaking the city as a unified yet heterogeneous fabric, this study suggests that slums and ruinous spaces were a part of a greater whole and their potential for liminality was essential to the existence of the East End. The paper takes a thematic approach to the representation of the East End and focuses on ruins, holes, analogies of animals, indefinable objects and grotesque bodies in A Child of the Jago (1896)-with a greater focus-, Tales of Mean Streets (1894) and The Hole in the Wall (1903). In A Child of the Jago, the Jago is not only a place to dwell in but it also nourishes and hides criminals within its ruins and holes. It is an urban ruin that aggravates the efforts of the middle classes trying to reconstruct an ordered and transparent space. The deviation and grotesqueness of the Jago help maintain its existence and survival disregarding the social codes and practices of the other classes.

In Italia, in Spagna e in Francia le baraccopoli sono una realtà lontana dall’essere superata, nonostante gli interventi posti in essere da parte delle autorità competenti. Quando sono sorte e come sono cambiate nel corso degli anni? Chi... more

In Italia, in Spagna e in Francia le baraccopoli sono una realtà lontana dall’essere superata, nonostante gli interventi posti in essere da parte delle autorità competenti. Quando sono sorte e come sono cambiate nel corso degli anni? Chi vi abita? Le politiche nazionali e locali al riguardo hanno avuto un impatto positivo o hanno finito col perpetuare lo status quo?

La temática principal de este presente trabajo, es constatar e indagar sobre el proceso de transformación acontecido en el Barrio de emergencia de Almafuerte, más conocido de forma coloquial como Villa Palito, describiremos al caso... more

La temática principal de este presente trabajo, es constatar e indagar sobre el proceso de transformación acontecido en el Barrio de emergencia de Almafuerte, más conocido de forma coloquial como Villa Palito, describiremos al caso mencionado y cómo surgió el proyecto de modernización, su posterior implementación y evaluación, A su vez haremos hincapié en cuál es el estado del estado en lugar, sí es considerada una zona marrón y como el estado ha vuelto a estar activo en base a esta política en la zona, si hubo o no articulación política o sobre que fue para la población que es residente en la zona el abandono producto de la reforma del estado. Focalizaremos nuestro análisis, sobre cómo fue el impacto de la urbanización, donde las comunidades se encuentran en un proceso de transformación que hace que el entorno ecológico donde viven, se lo deje de pensar como una villa donde reina la miseria, la estigmatización, la pobreza, desigualdad y el conflicto a un barrio, el barrio Almafuerte, donde todos estos distintivos que marcan a los individuos, familias y comunidad, desaparecen, integrando, tanto a los individuos como al área geográfica. Por último, profundizaremos sobre el desarrollo de colectivos comunitarios, antes que punteros políticos o piqueteros, que han reaccionado a las problemáticas de su comunidad, vinculadas a la economía social y al desarrollo urbano, así como las redes organizacionales dentro de la Villa Palito. Palabras claves: Comunitarismo, estado golem, reforma del estado, urbanización, Villa Palito, organizaciones sociales.

Aqui, trataremos mais especificamente da improvisação do espaço sob o ponto de vista da cultura e do lazer. Ou seja, focaremos na capacidade de transformação, através do uso cultural ou de novos modos de vida, de locais inicialmente... more

Aqui, trataremos mais especificamente da improvisação do espaço sob o ponto de vista da cultura e do lazer. Ou seja, focaremos na capacidade de transformação, através do uso cultural ou de novos modos de vida, de locais inicialmente pensados para abrigar outras atividades – desocupados, escondido ou desapercebidos em meio à paisagem urbana. Para além da riqueza natural carioca, dos monumentos e de alguns exemplos emblemáticos de arquitetura celebrados como parte essencial do imaginário local, encontram-se estes espaços esquecidos, que configuram “brechas” – vazios urbanos, recortes adjacentes ao traçado viário, estruturas obsoletas, abandonadas ou desocupadas. Um exemplo é o Parque Sitiê na Favela do Vidigal no Rio de Janeiro.

Abstract. Our research focuses on the problems of modern spatial, social and economic marginalization of the Belgrade slum population, as well as on the measures of improving the living conditions in them. The slums on the territory of... more

Abstract. Our research focuses on the problems of modern spatial, social and economic
marginalization of the Belgrade slum population, as well as on the measures of improving
the living conditions in them. The slums on the territory of Belgrade are numerous, dispersed,
heterogeneous in structure, size and type, and the common denominator that could
express the typical situation is poverty of their population. The paper also included an
analysis of the causes of the spatial concentration of slums, the increase in population,
exclusion of the population, poverty and the attitudes of the Belgrade population toward
these settlements and their inhabitants. A significant part of the paper refers to the main
life problems of the Roma, but of the Ashkali and Egyptians as well, who mostly inhabit
the slums (unemployment, illiteracy, begging, poor housing conditions, health problems
etc.). Measures for improving the living conditions in Belgrade slums, aiming at the
integration of their inhabitants into the spatial and social space of Belgrade are proposed in
the final part of the paper.
Key words: slums, poverty, Roma, exclusion, integration, Belgrade, Serbia
DOI: 10.3176/tr.2013.1.03

This is a chapter in Parnell, S. and Oldfield, S. (eds), The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South. Routledge, London, 2014. It traces the origin of the term 'slum' in Britain and its uses through history in that country and... more

This is a chapter in Parnell, S. and Oldfield, S. (eds), The Routledge Handbook on Cities of the Global South. Routledge, London, 2014. It traces the origin of the term 'slum' in Britain and its uses through history in that country and its colonies through to the postcolonial utility of the term and its renewed use in the post millennial global target setting.

This essay elaborates a magical realist reading of urban dispossession and the displacement of slum dwellers in contemporary New Delhi. More generally it argues that realist descriptions of the magical and magical descriptions of the real... more

This essay elaborates a magical realist reading of urban dispossession and the displacement of slum dwellers in contemporary New Delhi. More generally it argues that realist descriptions of the magical and magical descriptions of the real can help us sense and engage the multiple, fractured temporalities of the postcolonial city. The essay foregrounds an impending slum demolition in postcolonial Delhi’s (in)famous magicians’ ghetto in the heart of the city, excavating a concept of ‘moving slums’ from Salman Rushdie’s classic magical realist text Midnight’s Children. The interpretive concept of ‘moving slums’ describes the precarious temporality of slum demolition and re-settlement in postcolonial Delhi, juxtaposing dominant urbanist ideologies with everyday experiences and narratives of urban change. In societies deeply marked by the historical violence of uneven development, moving slums index the haunted morphology of the postcolonial city.

Recent studies have indicated that over one billion people around the world live in shadow cities called slums, some of them are located along the coast. These informal settlements that have historically been regarded as a marginal,... more

Recent studies have indicated that over one billion people around the world live in shadow cities called slums, some of them are located along the coast. These informal settlements that have historically been regarded as a marginal, temporary and unworthy form of urban development suffer from poverty, overcrowded houses, polluted environment, lack of infrastructure, lack of education, poor economy, and high rate of crime and violence. In addition, coastal slums face another threatening problem which is the flood risk after the sea level rise due to the climatic change. Hence, all of this has led to social-spatial segregation and to low living conditions. This paper aims to produce design guidelines for upgrading the coastal slums through
implementing floating architectural projects as an outside of the box solution. As a concentrated case study, the paper may envision the possibility to execute a floating building in Ouzai periphery, Beirut, Lebanon. It targets providing a center of awareness that can contribute in improving people’s behavior, feelings, and well-being. In order to outline this hypothesis, the paper will depend on the field methodology through visiting the site, holding interviews with urban experts, and concluding the intended design guidelines. One of the most important conclusions is: improving the well-being of coastal slums’ dwellers is possible through the maritime extension establishing simple modular units of floating architecture.

According to Un-Habitat statistics, by the end of 2008 the number of people living in urban areas exceeded rural population for the first time in human history. In 2013, at least 25% of world population lives in settlements definable as... more

According to Un-Habitat statistics, by the end of 2008 the number of people living in urban areas exceeded rural population for the first time in human history. In 2013, at least 25% of world population lives in settlements definable as slums.
The title “Scrap Cities” refers to the common perception of slums as subproducts of urbanization that should be removed as soon as possible and at the same time evocates the smart inventiveness of the slum dwellers, capable to rethink public spaces and to recycle all kinds of materials creating original urban patchworks.
In a certain way we can consider slums as the main expression of a purely African “urban way of life”, based on strong social bonds, informal economy, self-organized communities and self-built environment.
An approach to upgrading and development programs that focuses on the environment without involving slum dwellers may cause the demolition of those fragile social bonds, which matter more than a safer environment for the daily life of the residents.
The research focuses on the case study of Sierra Leone’s capital Freetown, a city founded by British philanthropists in 1789 as home for freed African slaves.
Freetown’s slums have been mapped and analyzed in their main formal elements, giving rise to handbooks that describe all the different typologies of public spaces and housing frames found in the settlements and to collections of all the building technologies, materials and solutions commonly adopted by the dwellers.
Those records led to an approach which refuses the imposition of strategic development plans made by foreign architects or planners.
Practice has shown that slums don’t need “big ideas”: they already contain smart and brilliant solutions, based on low technologies, cheapness and self-building capacity.
The proposed model of improvement tries to set up the conditions for a community-driven micro-planning of the slums, aimed to strengthen self-organization and improve the environmental safety and housing quality without passing through legalization processes or municipality actions.

Resumen El presente texto realiza un análisis historiográfico intentando abarcar la literatura existente sobre la urbanización informal en territorio europeo, comparando textos que describen este tipo de fenómenos en Francia, Reino Unido.... more

Resumen El presente texto realiza un análisis historiográfico intentando abarcar la literatura existente sobre la urbanización informal en territorio europeo, comparando textos que describen este tipo de fenómenos en Francia, Reino Unido. Se propone como una herramienta abierta que, describiendo en breves líneas las particularidades de los procesos informales en dichos países, y las políticas urbanísticas llevadas a cabo frente a ellos, permita ulteriores investigaciones de tipo comparativo sobre el fenómeno de la informalidad, entendido de un modo amplio, entre el contexto brasileño y europeo. Informal urbanization in Europe in the twentieth century: a historiography Abstract The article presents an historiographical analysis trying to embrace the existing literature on informal urbanization in European territory. Comparing texts that describe this type of phenomena in France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, the former Yugosla-via, Russia, Germany, Austria, Sweden and the United Kingdom. The text is proposed as an open tool that, describing in a few lines the particularities of informal processes in those countries, and the urban policies carried out to answer them, allows further comparative research on the phenomenon of informality, understood in a broad way, between the Brazilian and European context.

This paper will adopt a technocratic approach to outline the structure of housing deficiency in India, to contextualise nine central government policies/schemes relevant to the housing sector, initiated in the past decade. Deficiency is... more

This paper will adopt a technocratic approach to outline the structure of housing deficiency in India, to contextualise nine central government policies/schemes relevant to the housing sector, initiated in the past decade. Deficiency is understood here as a measure of deficit households requiring new houses), inadequacy (existing houses that can be upgraded), and unacceptability (houses requiring replacement). The nine central government initiatives that will be described in terms of their aims and stipulations comprise JNNURM, RAY, NUHHP, MSAHP, SUH, RRY, PMAY, AMRUT, and the Smart Cities Mission. The final section will discuss the main orientations of these initiatives. The paper argues that housing policy in India seems to be a response to factors other than the challenges posed by the urban housing sector. It also argues that the variegated nature of the sector demands diverse policy interventions—with a special focus on supporting and enabling incremental growth, environmental improvements, and self-help—rather than a single-minded pursuit to promote new house construction. ◆

Bu makale mekân sosyolojisi bağlamında mekân ve kimlik kavramları arasındaki ilişkiyi gecekondu bölgeleri üzerinden tartışmaktadır. Bu tartışma İzmir’de bulunan iki farklı gecekondu bölgesi olan Kadifekale ve Gümüşpala’da yapılan saha... more

Bu makale mekân sosyolojisi bağlamında mekân ve kimlik kavramları arasındaki ilişkiyi gecekondu bölgeleri üzerinden tartışmaktadır. Bu tartışma İzmir’de bulunan iki farklı gecekondu bölgesi olan Kadifekale ve Gümüşpala’da yapılan saha çalışmasına dayandırılmaktadır. Bildiride mekân ve kimlik kavramları, kişilerin mekânla kurdukları özdeşim ve mekâna aidiyet duymanın dinamikleri konuları incelenmektedir. Bu dinamiklerin başlıcaları etnik kimlik, politikleşme, ötekileştirme ve memleket mefhumu şeklinde sıralanabilir. Mekânın kişilere ne anlam ifade ettiği, mekân kimliğinin inşası, dönüşümü, mekân kimliğinin o bölgede yaşayan insanların sosyal yaşamı üzerindeki etkisi bildiride tartışılan diğer konuları oluşturmaktadır.

This paper aims to evaluate two slum upgrading projects in the Brazil during the last decades of 20 th century. Firstly, there is a review on the housing policies how they reacted with the slum condition in Brazil. In the research part... more

This paper aims to evaluate two slum upgrading projects in the Brazil during the last decades of 20 th century. Firstly, there is a review on the housing policies how they reacted with the slum condition in Brazil. In the research part are presented the geographical, historic, urban and architectural characteristics of the two cases, the favela Rocinha and the Recife shantytown. Then, there is a review on the most important slum policies that affected these two areas and their results. The purpose is to find common characteristics but also diversities between the two cases. The slum upgrading processes of every case study is defined by three steps: the initial one where the social and build environment of these areas is shaped, the proceeding step where is presented the proposal for every case and how the community of the slum reacted on it, and the last one where we see the development of the project and the ways it affected the ex-slum inhabitants. The information is based on other researches about these two cases and on data extracted by the upgrading projects report. The scope of this essay is not to measure the success of two processes but to find common issues which affected the outcome of the upgrading, although the particular diversities of the applied policies.

The task of studying the impact of social class on physical and mental health involves, among other things, the use of a conceptual toolbox that defines what social class is, establishes how to measure it, and sets criteria that help... more

The task of studying the impact of social class on physical and mental health involves, among other things, the use of a conceptual toolbox that defines what social class is, establishes how to measure it, and sets criteria that help distinguish it from closely related concepts. One field that has recently witnessed a wealth of theoretical and conceptual research on social class is psychology, but geographers' and sociologists' attitude of diffidence toward this " positivistic " discipline has prevented them from taking advantage of this body of scholarship. This paper aims to highlight some of the most important developments in the psychological study of social class and social mobility that speak to the long-standing concerns of health geographers and sociologists with how social position, perceptions, social comparisons, and class-based identities impact health and well-being.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2017.11.037

For most people, the urban neighbourhood is within easy reach by Hong Kong’s efficient transport system. It is a convenient place where one can buy cheap products and then leave. However, for those living in the poorest neighbourhood in... more

For most people, the urban neighbourhood is within easy reach by Hong Kong’s efficient transport system. It is a convenient place where one can buy cheap products and then leave. However, for those living in the poorest neighbourhood in one of the most unequal cities in the developed world, residents may not necessarily think about it this way. Residents of this underprivileged neighbourhood are relatively immobile, and their experiences of ‘mainstream’ urban life limited. Hence this article describes the spaces significant to them as it recounts a distinctive way of life in post-industrial Hong Kong that makes Sham Shui Po Hong Kong's centre of poverty.

Informality is usually defined as the whole practices that escape from the state and the radar of the administrations. Yet, informality is not invisible and causes conflicts around the way it is possible to produce knowledge about it. The... more

Informality is usually defined as the whole practices that escape from the state and the radar of the administrations. Yet, informality is not invisible and causes conflicts around the way it is possible to produce knowledge about it. The article, which focuses on slums upgrading policies in Madrid (Spain) since the 1960s, sheds light on urban informality by locating itself at the crossroads of two types of literature: the anthropol- ogy of ignorance and the sociology of public policies. It shows how the institutionalization of these resorption policies was based on the constitution of important statistical and mapping devices but that a large part of the phenomenon (the big slum of the Cañada Real Galiana) was deliberately left out of these official public knowledge devices in order to avoid putting on the political agenda what appeared to be a reserve of informal- ity necessary to host of populations evicted elsewhere. It also shows that residents have mobilized to resist this exclusion and produce alternative knowledge about their neighbourhood. The article concludes that shantytowns, and more generally urban informality, are at the crossroads of processes of formalization and informalization that overlap on struggles for the production of knowledge or ignorance.