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Abstract
The slum is not only a manifestation of mismanaged urban planning in the countries of the South. The existence of slums worldwide is also a sign that the slum is a crucial element of contemporary urbanisation. This article will attempt to define this phenomenon and understand its causes. Adequate policy responses are then suggested. Without finding appropriate solutions to the housing problems of a majority of urban dwellers, public and private decision makers will not be able to meet the challenges of sustainable development.
Le bidonville n'est pas seulement la manifestation d'une planification urbaine mal gérée dans les pays du Sud. Sa présence au plan mondial est également le signe que le bidonville représente une composante cruciale du phénomène contemporain d'urbanisation. L'article cherchera à définir ce phénomène et à en comprendre les causes, de manière à suggérer des réponses adéquates. Sans trouver de solutions à l'habitat de la majorité des citadins, les décideurs publics et privés ne seront pas en mesure de faire face aux enjeux du développement durable.
Notes
1. According to the National Centre of Competence in Research on Mitigating Syndromes of Global Change (NCCR N-S) (cf. Hurni et al., Citation2004), the slum (identified as the ‘favela syndrome’; Kropp et al., Citation2001) is a form of ‘socio-ecological degradation through uncontrolled urban growth’, characterised by strong negative impact in the following areas: soil degradation, fresh water scarcity and global development disparities. The ‘urban sprawl syndrome’, a second characteristic of worldwide urbanisation, leads to the ‘destruction of landscapes through the planned expansion of urban infrastructures’, and generates soil degradation, climate change, loss of biodiversity and fresh water scarcity.
2. The first things that come to mind are drinking water provision, wastewater disposal, electricity and a fixed telephone network.
3. According to traditional rules that are respected and approved by ethnic or religious authorities.
4. In developing countries, the population having access to clean drinking water has moved from 71% in 1990 to 79% in 2002, and from 34% to 49% for access to sanitation facilities.
5. See < www.citymayors.com/report/slums.html>.
6. As an example, a brief quotation describing the streets of London in the late 18th century: ‘At this time the streets of London were as filthy, muddy and polluted as a thousand dung heaps set side by side. Moreover, they were ten times as dangerous as a battle field and as rarely cleaned as the cell of a lunatic asylum…’.
7. In the early 1990s the poor made up 60–70% of both the urban and the rural population in Bolivia (World Bank, Citation1990).
8. According to an analysis of statistical data operated by Tannuri-Pianto et al. (Citation2004), this represented 68% of urban employment in 2002.
9. This implied a deficit of 15% of overall housing, a deficit which rose to 26% in 1995 (Szalachman and Raquel, Citation1999).
10. It is also at this time, in 1992, that the NGO PRODEM, which since 1986 had specialised in micro-credits for production purposes, became Banco SOL < www.bancosol.com.bo/historia.html>.
11. A name adopted by the inhabitants in the early 1960s with reference to the synthetic fabric that was then making its appearance on African markets.
12. The issue of the link between preservation of the natural environment, economic cost and the allocation of this cost to the population has also been dealt with comparatively in three urban Latin American regions in Cuba, Argentina and Bolivia. See on the subject Bolay et al. (Citation2005).
13. Internalising the costs means the inclusion of possible human health costs and the indirect investments (in public infrastructures, for instance) in the real value of a good's production.
14. One may mention the theories of the centres and peripheries which arose in the wake of studies conducted in the 1960s and 1970s by urban researchers including Prebisch (Citation1963) and Furtado (Citation1970).
15. According to the World Bank, quoted in Rakodi, Citation2002.
16. 82.6% in more developed countries and 56.4% in less developed regions.
17. The notion of urban governance (Le Galès, Citation1995), or of ‘good governance’ in the sense in which it is used by the World Bank (World Bank website on governance: < www.worldbank.org/wbi/governance/>) is relevant here (Santiso and Nitze, Citation2001).
18. One example, among many others, is what was done in Mauritania by the NGO GRET (Creusot, Citation2002).