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Globalization of Slums, Houselessness and Urban Poverty: Emerging Issues and Options
Globalization of Slums, Houselessness and Urban Poverty: Emerging Issues and Options
Monday, 11 July 2016: 14:15-15:45
Location: Marietta Blau Saal (Main Building)
WG05 Famine and Society (host committee) Language: English
The problem of slums has been experienced at some point of time by almost all the major cities in the developing countries. Slums are a physical and spatial manifestation of urban poverty and intra-city inequality. Slums and urban poverty are not just a manifestation of a population explosion and demographic change, or even of the vast impersonal forces of globalization but a result of a failure of housing policies, laws and delivery systems, as well as national and urban policies (UN-Habitat 2003). Same is true for houselessness in urban areas.
There is growing concern about the poor people living in slums, as manifested in the United Nations Millennium Declaration and subsequent identification of development priorities by the international community. The housing problem seems to acquire serious dimensions in many countries in the wake of rapid urbanization, commodification of land and housing, distortion in land market and weakening of public sector housing provision in post-liberalisation period. The onset of liberal regimes in promoting development of real estate markets, beginning with low interest home loans, etc. seem to have made land and housing in urban areas a commodity for speculation.
Inequality between rich and poor and marginalization of the poor can be seen in most of the developing countries. At the same time some good examples are emerging for addressing these urban concerns for creating a better world. The papers are invited from across the globe highlighting various aspects of the theme under consideration.
Session Organizers: