Here is an interesting article I came across that examines the massive "slum cities" that have developed around some of the world's major metropolitan areas as more and more folks move from the countryside. The basic thesis of the article is that the slum city is an organic, self organizing system that is constantly restructuring itself to become more efficient and equitable.I think the article might simplify the larger social issues here by under-emphasizing the relationship between the slum city (the have-nots) from the wealthier urban and suburban areas (the haves). But, it does capture the resilience and ingenuity of humans - and I would agree that there is much we can learn from super-compact living.
Also, check out this video of a market in Thailand:
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2010/01/how-slums-can-save-the-planet/
You know, this sounds really nifty... unless you are one of those 30,000 people that form the "organic recycling industry" in a slum, i.e. you glean the dump all day, every day, for the rest of your squalid life.
ReplyDeleteAlso, consider the quote:
“Cities are so much more successful in promoting new forms of income generation, and it is so much cheaper to provide services in urban areas, that some experts have actually suggested that the only realistic poverty reduction strategy is to get as many people as possible to move to the city.”
This is a bit frightening to me - the benefit of being rural poor, rather than urban poor, is that no matter how poor you are you can at least work at subsistence farming to feed your family. The urban poor have no recourse but to hustle.
Oh, in the same vein, see Robert Neuwirth's TED talk on "Shadow Cities". Neuwirth puts forth the idea that the shantytown, slum, and favela are not examples of "urbanism gone horribly wrong". Rather, these communities are the dominant way that many of the world's inhabitants experience the the city, and represent the future form of urbanism.
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