Why are there slums, and what can we do about it?
Slums are a worldwide phenomenon being present virtually in every region of the world, and having an immense diversity among them. Mike Davis and Robert Sampson are two authors who approached this issue on their own respective books, from a rather different perspective, but maintaining the topic of urban poverty as the overarching object of analysis. Davis directly addresses the slums as a global issue, giving different characteristics that are present on them, and explaining their variety. Sampson on the other side, takes the specific case of Chicago, and analyzes its urban poverty, the problematics that it carries, and the strategies available to solve it.
On Planet of Slums, Davis uses the UN definition of slums as an “overcrowding, poor or informal housing, with inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, and insecurity of tenure” (Davis, 2007, p. 23). This definition applies mostly to the slums on the Global South, and is highly flexible, aiming to account for the great diversity of slums present …show more content…
The slums in the global south are characterized by a high urbanization rate, increasing industrialization process (although not in all cases), and lack of housing facilities that force people to come up with alternatives. On the other side, the Chicago slums are places with negative population growth, in a post-industrial phase, and with plenty of empty buildings. Even after these “contradictions”, in terms of economic and demographic processes there are still plenty of similarities. As expressed by Sampson, the people living in those Chicago “slums” are in a high economic distress, and waiting for jobs and economic rebound. The same patterns can be seen at the slums in the global south where there is high unemployment, and certainly economic opportunities are very
Slums are a worldwide phenomenon being present virtually in every region of the world, and having an immense diversity among them. Mike Davis and Robert Sampson are two authors who approached this issue on their own respective books, from a rather different perspective, but maintaining the topic of urban poverty as the overarching object of analysis. Davis directly addresses the slums as a global issue, giving different characteristics that are present on them, and explaining their variety. Sampson on the other side, takes the specific case of Chicago, and analyzes its urban poverty, the problematics that it carries, and the strategies available to solve it.
On Planet of Slums, Davis uses the UN definition of slums as an “overcrowding, poor or informal housing, with inadequate access to safe water and sanitation, and insecurity of tenure” (Davis, 2007, p. 23). This definition applies mostly to the slums on the Global South, and is highly flexible, aiming to account for the great diversity of slums present …show more content…
The slums in the global south are characterized by a high urbanization rate, increasing industrialization process (although not in all cases), and lack of housing facilities that force people to come up with alternatives. On the other side, the Chicago slums are places with negative population growth, in a post-industrial phase, and with plenty of empty buildings. Even after these “contradictions”, in terms of economic and demographic processes there are still plenty of similarities. As expressed by Sampson, the people living in those Chicago “slums” are in a high economic distress, and waiting for jobs and economic rebound. The same patterns can be seen at the slums in the global south where there is high unemployment, and certainly economic opportunities are very