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Shantytowns (also called [[slum]]s, squatter settlements camps, [[favela]]s), are settlements (sometimes illegal or unauthorized) of [[poverty|impoverished]] people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often [[plywood]], [[Corrugated galvanised iron|corrugated metal]], and sheets of [[plastic]]. Shantytowns, which are usually built on the periphery of cities, often do not have proper [[sanitation]], [[electric power|electricity]], or [[telephone]] services.
Shantytowns (also called [[slum]]s, squatter settlements camps, [[favela]]s), are settlements (sometimes illegal or unauthorized) of [[poverty|impoverished]] people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often [[plywood]], [[Corrugated galvanised iron|corrugated metal]], and sheets of [[plastic]]. Shantytowns, which are usually built on the periphery of cities, often do not have proper [[sanitation]], [[electric power|electricity]], or [[telephone]] services.


Shantytowns are mostly found in developing nations, or partially developed nations with an [[economic inequality|unequal distribution of wealth]] (or, on occasion, developed countries in a severe recession). In extreme cases, shanty towns have populations approaching that of a city. One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in shanty towns.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm downloaded 19th of May 2005. </ref>
Shantytowns are mostly found in developing nation wats uphis, or partially developed nations with an [[economic inequality|unequal distribution of wealth]] (or, on occasion, developed countries in a severe recession). In extreme cases, shanty towns have populations approaching that of a city. One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in shanty towns.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm downloaded 19th of May 2005. </ref>


==Origins==
==Origins==

Revision as of 01:36, 20 October 2009

"Shantytown" redirects here. For other uses, see Shantytown (disambiguation).

Shantytowns (also called slums, squatter settlements camps, favelas), are settlements (sometimes illegal or unauthorized) of impoverished people who live in improvised dwellings made from scrap materials: often plywood, corrugated metal, and sheets of plastic. Shantytowns, which are usually built on the periphery of cities, often do not have proper sanitation, electricity, or telephone services.

Shantytowns are mostly found in developing nation wats uphis, or partially developed nations with an unequal distribution of wealth (or, on occasion, developed countries in a severe recession). In extreme cases, shanty towns have populations approaching that of a city. One billion people, one-sixth of the world's population, now live in shanty towns.[1]

Origins

A slum in Mumbai, India.

The word "shantytown" has been traced to 1876 (Merriam-Webster Dictionary) as a typically poor town or section of a town consisting mostly of shanties.[2]

Shantytowns tend to develop on the outskirts of cities. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, shantytowns, often called "Hobo jungles," "favelas," or "Georgie Slums" appeared in cities across North America because of massive unemployment. In the United States they were sometimes nicknamed "Hoovervilles" because the residents blamed the economic conditions on then President Herbert Hoover, whose decisions were popularly thought to have caused the depression. Similarly in Canada, hobo jungles were dubbed "Bennettville" after Prime Minister Bennett.[citation needed]

The first recorded use of the word shanty, as meaning a crude dwelling, was in Ohio in 1820.[citation needed] It may have been derived from the French Canadian word chantier, meaning a hut in a lumber camp, from the French word for timberyard.[3] Alternatively, it could have been derived from the Irish seán tí {shaun tee], meaning "old house", or from the Nahuatl word chantli as "home".

Dangers

Since construction is informal and unguided by urban planning, there is a near total absence of formal street grids, numbered streets, sanitation networks, electricity, or telephones. Even if these resources are present, they are likely to be disorganized, old or inferior. Shanty towns also tend to lack basic services present in more formally organized settlements, including policing, medical services, and fire fighting. Fires are a particular danger for shanty towns not only for the lack of fire fighting stations and the difficulty fire trucks have traversing the absence of formal street grids[4], but also because of the close proximity of buildings and flammability of materials used in construction[5] A sweeping fire on the hills of Shek Kip Mei, Hong Kong, in late 1953 left 53,000 squatter dwellers homeless, prompting the colonial government to institute a resettlement estate system.

Stereotypes present shanty towns as inevitably having high rates of crime, suicide, drug use, and disease. However the observer Georg Gerster has noted (with specific reference to the invasões of Brasilia), "squatter settlements [as opposed to slums], despite their unattractive building materials, may also be places of hope, scenes of a counter-culture, with an encouraging potential for change and a strong upward impetus."[6]

Examples

Cité Soleil, Haiti, 2002

Shanty towns are present in a number of countries. The largest shanty town in Asia is the Orangi Township in Karachi, Pakistan,[7][8] while the largest in Africa is Kibera in Nairobi, Kenya.[9] Another large shanty town is Dharavi in Mumbai, India which houses over 1 million people.[7]

Other countries with shanty towns include South Africa (where they are often called squatter camps) or imijondolo, Australia (mainly in Aboriginal areas), the United States, Canada, the Philippines (often called squatter areas), Venezuela (where they are known as barrios), Brazil (favelas), West Indies such as Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago (where they are known as Shanty town), Peru (where they are known as pueblos jóvenes), and Haiti, where they are referred to as bidonvilles. There are also shanty town population in countries such as Bangladesh[10] and the People's Republic of China.[11][12][13] In many countries there are now large movements of shanty town residents which often face severe state repression.

For example in South Africa Abahlali baseMjondolo have become a significant political force in the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg and in Brazil the Movement of Workers Without a Roof (MST) is very strong.

An imijondolo, or Shanty town, in Soweto, South Africa

Many countries have a name for marginal settlements.

See also

Variations of impoverished settlements

References

  1. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4561183.stm downloaded 19th of May 2005.
  2. ^ "shantytown - Definition from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009, web: MW-shantyt.
  3. ^ "shanty - Definition from Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary", Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2009, web: MW-shanty.
  4. ^ {{cite web}}: Empty citation (help)
  5. ^ See the report on shack fires in South Africa by Matt Birkinshaw [1] as well as the wider collection of articles in fires in shanty towns at [2]
  6. ^ Georg Gerster, Flights of Discovery: The Earth from Above, 1978, London: Paddington, p. 116
  7. ^ a b Dharavi - National Geographic Magazine
  8. ^ http://www.dawn.com/weekly/cowas/20071006.htm
  9. ^ http://www.imcworldwide.org/content/article/detail/766/
  10. ^ http://www.isuh.org/download/dhaka.pdf
  11. ^ http://olympics.scmp.com/Article.aspx?id=1419&section=insight
  12. ^ http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200509/09/eng20050909_207472.html
  13. ^ http://www.isg-fi.org.uk/spip.php?article288
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