About this book:

*Slum City: The Social History of Urban Poverty and Informal Settlements* provides a comprehensive examination of global urban marginalization, tracing the evolution from industrial-era tenements to modern mega-slums like Kibera, Dharavi, and Rocinha. The book argues that slums are not aberrations but essential, albeit unequal, components of urbanization, produced by the structural failures of formal housing markets and state policy. By centering on the concept of "making a life where the city refuses to make room," the text explores how informality functions as a rational mode of urban production rather than a state of chaos.

The book delves into the granular realities of daily survival, highlighting the "hustle" of the informal economy, the social politics of water and sanitation, and the gendered labor of care that sustains households. It details how residents build homes incrementally, navigate fragmented transport networks, and establish informal governance structures like savings groups and neighborhood committees. These internal systems of mutual aid and social capital serve as a vital safety net in the absence of state support, providing security, credit, and dispute resolution while simultaneously navigating threats from environmental disasters, climate change, and systemic violence.

A significant portion of the work critiques historical and contemporary policy responses, specifically the devastating harms of slum clearance and forced evictions. The author demonstrates that such punitive measures fail to solve poverty, instead displacing it to the urban periphery and destroying essential social and economic networks. In contrast, the book advocates for "upgrading" as a more humane and effective alternative. However, it cautions that upgrading can fail if it ignores local expertise or leads to "gentrification from below," where rising land values displace the very residents the projects were intended to help.

The concluding chapters propose a policy agenda rooted in the "right to the city," emphasizing tenure security, accessible finance, and the "co-production" of urban space. The book contends that humane urban policy must recognize residents not as passive victims or "squatters," but as experts and partners. By integrating community-led mapping and local knowledge with formal planning, cities can move away from exclusionary practices toward a more inclusive urbanism that values the ingenuity and rights of those living at the margins.

What You'll Find Inside:

• Slums are presented as integral (though unequal) components of urbanization, not aberrations, with a global genealogy tracing from industrial tenements to contemporary mega-slums.
• The informal economy is analyzed as a vital urban subsystem where residents create livelihoods through street vending, waste picking, home-based enterprises, and innovative hustle.
• Land tenure insecurity and the politics of illegality are examined as systemic products of housing market failures, planning gaps, and legal frameworks that exclude the urban poor.
• Community organizing through savings groups, committees, and cooperatives is shown as a fundamental survival strategy and form of resistance from below.
• The book concludes with a policy agenda centered on rights, affordable finance, and co-production between communities and the state as alternatives to clearance and failed upgrading approaches.

Who's It For:

This book is essential reading for urban planners, policymakers, and government officials working on housing, infrastructure, and urban development, particularly in the Global South. It will also benefit students and researchers in urban studies, sociology, geography, and development studies seeking a comprehensive social history of informal settlements. NGO workers, community organizers, and activists engaged with marginalized urban communities will find valuable insights for advocacy and program design. Anyone interested in understanding the realities of urban poverty from a historical, political, and lived-experience perspective will gain deep insights from this work.