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Reports

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - myth 4: slums are an inevitable stage of development

Report / 8th December 2010

There is an underlying assumption to much of the debate surrounding slums and urban poverty: that the urban poor will get to our standard of living eventually, and countries of the South will rise to the same level of material affluence as the industrialised North, just so long as...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - Myth 5: the free market can end slums

Report / 8th December 2010

According to the international institutions and powerful states that drive globalisation (along with most of the business community, conservative political parties, libertarian ideologues and the corporate-controlled media that gives voice to their concerns), we are told that social injustice can only be addressed by the proper application of some version of free market capitalism...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - myth 6: international aid is the answer

Report / 8th December 2010

Never in the history of cities have there been so many projects for improving slums and the living conditions of the urban poor by international aid agencies, development banks and non-governmental organisations (NGOs). But just as state policies have failed to meet the needs of the urban poor in most low- and middle-income countries...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - myth 7: there will always be slums

Report / 8th December 2010

Is it realistic to talk about an end to slums at any point in the future? Or does the same view hold for ‘slums’ as for those who proclaim against global poverty: “the poor have always been with us, and always will be!” For some modern writers, the evidence suggests that the future of cities is a foregone and forbidding conclusion, a “planet of slums”...