Reading Case Studies

Abstract

Today, with half of the Earth’s population living in cities, urbanisation has become a kind of common ground for the social, spatial and environmental changes taking place worldwide. In this, the slum stands out as a symbol of extensive and rapid urban growth – the antithesis of balanced urban development. Moreover, roughly one third of the total urban population is living in precarious conditions in a variety of urban contexts. In this book we will present 15 slums with population ranging from approximately 10,000 to more than half a million inhabitants.