| Date | Topic |
| WEEK 4 | The costs and benefits of globalization are unevenly distributed across and within the world's city-regions and their hinterlands. |
| Jan. 30 | Uneven development and urban poverty in comparative perspective. The State of the World "Slums." |
| Feb. 1 | Mexico City: grassroots mobilization and ecology as politics. Slides are available in several formats: Flash based interface: CEP flash Pdf (huge file 50meg) Powerpoint presentation: ppt 6meg Image Gallery: http://regionalworkbench.org/gallery/main.php |
Assigned Readings
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (2006). The State of the World's Cities 2006/2007: The Millennium Development Goals and Urban Sustainability, 30 Years of Shaping the Habitat Agenda. Sterling, Va., Earthscan. Part II: 2.1-2.5. (jump to notes below)
Pezzoli, K. (2000). Human settlements and planning for ecological sustainability: the case of Mexico City. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: Parts III & IV. (jump to notes below)
Topic introduction
While there is much talk about how globalization makes the world a smaller and more integrated place, it is a highly uneven process. Uneven development is especially evident in the human settlements of fast growing city-regions of developing countries. Mexico City is a good example. Closer to home, transborder city-regions along the U.S.-Mexico border are dramatic examples where significant wealth is juxtaposed to poverty. In the San Diego-Tijuana city-region, the city of San Diego has a population approximately the same size as the city of Tijuana. Yet, Tijuana has a municipal budget one-fourteenth of San Diego’s -- about $100 million versus approximately $1.4 billion (San Diego Dialog 2000). This has made it difficult to develop region-serving infrastructure in the San Diego-Tijuana area.
United Nations Human Settlements Programme (2006). The State of the World's Cities 2006/2007: The Millennium Development Goals and Urban Sustainability, 30 Years of Shaping the Habitat Agenda. Sterling, Va., Earthscan. Part II: 2.1-2.5.
Part II: The State of the World's Slums
Overcrowding or the "hidden homeless," select details in pdf format.
Safe Drinking Water, select details in pdf format, p2
Inadequate Sanitation & the Silent Tsunami, select details in pdf format, p.1.
Owners without Title: Security of Tenure, select details in pdf format, p. 2
Slum Conditions (UN Habitat 2006)
- A slum household is a group of individuals living under the same roof in an urban area who lack one or more of the following 5 conditions:
- Durable Housing
- A house built on a non-hazardous location with a structure that is permanent and adequate enough to protect the inhabitants from extremes of climatic conditions.
- Sufficient living area
- A house in which not more than three people share the same room.
- Access to improved water
- A household with access to a sufficient amount of water for family use, at an affordable price, available without extreme effort, especially on the part of women and children.
- Access to sanitation
- A household with adequate access to an excreta disposal system, either in the form of a private toilet or a public toilet shared with a reasonable number of people, available to all household members.
- Secure tenure
- The right of all individuals and groups to effective protection against forced evictions. People have secure tenure when there is evidence of documentation that can be used as proof of secure tenure status or when there is either de facto or perceived protection against forced evictions.
- People living in slums have worse health outcomes and are more likely to be affected by child mortality and acute respiratory illnesses than their non-slum counterparts. They are also more likely to live near hazardous locations with few basic services, making them more vulnerable to natural disasters such as floods, and saddling them with heavy health and social burdens, which ultimately affect their productivity.
- Worldwide, 18 percent of all housing units (125 million units) are non-permanent structures, and 25 percent (175 million units) do not conform to urban building codes or regulations. 3-4 of every 10 non-permanent houses in cities in developing countries are located in dangerous areas that are prone to floods, landslides and other natural disasters.
- Units that are in the worst condition often house members of ethnic minorities or immigrants. Often these houses are overcrowded and dilapidated dwellings located in low-income neighborhoods. Many are sub-standard units that are contaminated and lacking light, air and open space. Others are poorly built, poorly maintained and isolated, often situated in inaccessible or unhealthy locations.
- Approximately 20 percent of the world’s urban population was living in inadequate dwellings, in terms of sufficient living area, in 2003.
- More than a quarter of the developing world’s urban population lacks adequate sanitation. Globally, an estimated 2.6 billion people lack toilets and other forms of improved sanitation.
- Every year, hundreds of thousands of people die as a result of living conditions made unhealthy by lack of clean water and sanitation options. The number of deaths attributable to poor hygiene alone may be as high as 1.6 million per year.
- One out of every three children in the developing world do not have access to a toilet of any kind in the vicinity of their dwellings.
- Between 30 percent and 50 percent of urban residents in developing countries lack any kind of legal document to show they have tenure security
Informalization (UN Habitat 2006)
- Two main processes have significantly contributed to the rise in urban informal activities:
- The failure of the formal sector to provide adequate jobs and income-generating opportunities for a rapidly growing urban population.
- The growing tendency of the formal sector to contract services out to secondary labor markets, which are mainly in the informal sector.
- In developing countries, informal employment comprises one-half to three quarters of non-agricultural employment. Women account for a disproportionately larger share of the informal labor force than men. In developing countries as a whole, more than 60 percent of women are engaged in the informal employment in the non-agricultural sector.
- About 85% of all new employment opportunities around the world occur in the informal economy.
Where we stand today: Socially (UN Habitat 2006)
- Economic growth has not helped to reduce inequalities in much of the world; the wealthiest 20 percent of the world’s people account for 86 percent of private consumption, while the poorest account for only 1 percent. The highest levels of income inequality exist in Africa and Latin America.
- Approximately one-fifth of slum households live in extremely poor conditions, lacking more than three basic shelter needs.
- Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest prevalence of slums in the world-71.8 percent of its urban population lives in slums.
- 95 percent of the world’s urban dwellers have access to safe drinking water but only 72 percent of the world’s rural population has the same access. Additionally rich countries consume 10 times more drinking water (500-800 liters per day) than poor countries (60-150 liters per day).
- In 2002, nearly half the developing world (2.5 billion) had no access to proper sanitation.
- Poor urban families may have to spend 70 - 80% of their disposable income on buying food.
Pezzoli, K. (2000). Human settlements and planning for ecological sustainability: the case of Mexico City. Cambridge, Mass., MIT Press: Parts III & IV.
Mexico City is a dynamic and historically magnificent place. At the same time, it is home to some of the world’s most serious urban-environmental problems. The gigantism of Mexico City has given it legendary status. It has become a sort of Titanic of urban studies. Indeed, the city is literally sinking. But unlike the Titanic, the citizens of Mexico City may change their course. This book examines the type of grassroots innovation that gives one hope. But the story I tell in the book is steeped in realism. The popular struggle to create a more livable city is a story about blood and sweat, creation and destruction, hope and despair. Much of this story comes from the grassroots community-builders themselves. But this is not just an anecdotal tale. My intent in writing the book was to begin theorizing about the political ecology of human settlements and the so-called quest for sustainable development. We need to make sustainability a much more rigorous concept in both theory and practice. This book cites the work of many Mexican scholars who are making crucial advances along these lines.
With respect to grassroots environmental action in Mexico City and other developing countries:
- What was the Colonia Ecologica Productiva? Do you think the CEP offers a viable model for alternative development?
- Can grassroots environmental activism bring about progressive social change?
Urbanization under conditions of resource and income scarcity demands the integration of concerns about the environment and development. Douglas and Zoghlin (1994) capture this point well: "While much of the concern over the environment has disregarded or even opposed questions of income and livelihood, the concern over the economics of livelihood in the city has tended to dwell on employment and income generation over environmental resource conservation and renewal. Unless both questions are tackled simultaneously, sustainable cities as a concept that entails human-environmental relations has little utility" (p. 171).