Slums of Hope? is concerned with the shanty towns that increasingly appear in the suburbs of Third World cities. In South America, Africa, India and South East Asia they serve as homes for sometimes as much as half a city’s total population, their abject poverty contrasting vividly with the affluence of the modern city centre. In their visible characteristics these shanty towns differ; yet all are the product of the same social and economic process.
Professor Lloyd here surveys the modes of migrations to cities, the growth of makeshift settlements and the ways of life and political aptitudes of their residents. External observers have tended to see these communities in terms of social chaos and apathy; many scholars who have experience of them report differently of a generally law-abiding population with a great desire and potential for self-advancement.
The purpose of this book is to examine the policies of community development and self-help which now dominate the approach of many governments; in particular, to discover the view held by the urban poor of their society and to understand their hopes and frustrations.
In illuminating the problems of Third World development, Slums of Hope? will serve to dispel a few myths, while providing a valuable survey and a novel approach to urbanization and other Third World issues.