Shanty Towns Research Articles

Beyond Cerdá: Public housing in the Barcelona periphery

Mass migration into the city of Barcelona in the 1950s created an estimated deficit of 100,000 dwellings by the close of the decade, and by the early 1960s an estimated 100,000 people were living in shanty towns in and around the city. In an effort to address this crisis, central State and local housing authorities constructed a series of housing estates in the urban periphery, beyond the central ensanche (expansion), the centrepiece of Ildefonso Cerdá’s 1860 master plan for the city. Using secondary sources, original photographs taken at the end of the Franco era, and more recent Google Earth images, this article discusses the role of the main housing authorities at the time, and examines the planning process that allowed the construction of these housing estates and their subsequent demolition or remodelling in the post-Franco era. The article finds that the public authorities allowed planning regulations to be contravened, or used loopholes and special measures within the planning laws, to construct housing units of minimal dimensions and generally poor quality in areas often zoned for other uses. More recently, “special plans” have been used effectively to improve or replace the majority of these estates. The article concludes that political will was the dominant factor in determining housing construction in the Franco era with the planning process being largely an irrelevance, and that residents’ associations have led the struggle for improvements in these estates in the post-Franco era, with the revised planning laws providing an effective framework for change.

Anthropocene Air Quality Impact on the Kolkata People

Air quality is a significant concern globally, particularly in densely populated urban areas like Kolkata, pollution-wise the 2nd largest, fast-growing metropolis in India. The present study correlates to Kolkata city during the pre-Anthropocene (the 1950s) and the concurrent air quality related to human health. Investigating the impact of anthropogenic activities on air quality in Calcutta and Kolkata is relevant to understanding public health risks and environmental sustainability.
 The portrayal of the current air pollutants, causes, classification and measuring apparatuses recommended by the India Meteorological Department, collected from WBPCB, the levels of the parameters such as. Particulate Matter (PM2.5 and PM10), CO, CO2, NO2, O3 and SO2 etc. and analysed statistically.
 Air pollution has outnumbered the fatalities of other polluting agents such as waterborne, waste, radiation, and anthropogenic players in the 21st century. The novel insights into the specific effects of anthropogenic activities on air quality in Kolkata are the vulnerabilities of transportation, industry, meteorological and slum activities that are valuable. The vulnerabilities that distract ambient air quality indices have reached critical levels of air pollutants, especially particulate matter, GHG gases and NO2.
 Different zones in the city are residential, commercial, shanty towns, and industrial areas. Results show levels of pollution are different in each area. Seasonal considered, the winter season is found to have the highest distraction from ambient air quality. Some suitable measures are conceptualised that will mitigate the menace of air pollution to pave the way for bringing sustainable urban health and environment development to Greater Kolkata.

Movie as a Tool for Creation and Sustenance of Nigeria’s Positive Image: A Case Study of 93 Days

Image matters whether it concerns a nation or an individual. The image of the Nigerian and the Nigerian nation in the media, both national and international, leaves so much to be desired. Daily, we are bombarded with negative stereotypes and images in the media: of Nigerian armed robbers in Dubai; Yahoo Yahoo and Yahoo plus experiments and; credit card fraudsters in the UK and other European nations. These images do not help in projecting the real potential and the endowments of the nation both in human terms and natural resources. This paper investigates the genuine practise and patterns of Nigerian workers, especially as it is represented in the Nollywood film "93 Days" which is a film that shows Nigeria in a positive light over an incident that was well handled by the Government. This, however, is one of the rare films that showed Nigeria in good light. There are many in Nollywood and even Hollywood that show the country in negative image such as District 9 and Shanty Town. This paper examines how films could be used as tools in creating and sustaining positive images for Nigeria and the Nigerian nation. It will also explore how, through the use of themes and characterisation, films can be used to create positive images for the nation. It will then suggest steps that could be taken to increase the number of Nollywood films that could help in rebranding the nation's image positively. Negative representation in Nollywood harms the country's reputation because there is no telling how far the films go. The theoretical framework for this paper is Jean-Louis Baudry's Apparatus theory. The theory avers that cinema (film) is ideological; its mechanics of representation are ideological because films are created to represent reality. It also adopts a literary method of analysis to answer the question posed on the reality of the effectiveness of the Nigerian sectors. From the analysis, the aplomb nature of the Nigerian health workers is revealed. In a period that is evidently challenging for everybody, especially health workers, outdid themselves and protected the people.

Staying in Control? Youth Reformatories, Social Fears and Social Change Under Francoism

This article explores continuity and change in Spain's reformatories. Looking at legal and normative documentation, we could argue, on the one hand, that the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975) found little need to change how the reformatories worked. The juvenile court system, on which they depended, displayed strong similarities to those operating elsewhere in the West, and my empirical study of 2,300 personal and administrative records indicates that the reformatories were always characterized by archaic practices and were chronically underfunded throughout Francoism. On the other hand, after analysing the evolving profiles of adolescents confined under Francoism, we can see the connections with both specific processes of regime-sanctioned change from the end of the 1950s – in particular massive, accelerated, internal rural-to-urban migration – and the goal of the dictatorship of preserving a particular form of social order by maintaining tight control of those sectors of the population it considered a danger (i.e., predominantly marginalized, male adolescents living on the edges of Spain's cities – in the shanty towns ( chabolas) or poor suburbs ( banlieues)). The article also looks at how families from different social classes interacted with the reformatories to achieve their own goals, which overlapped with the dictatorship's while remaining partly distinct.

Vulnerability Assessment of Prefabricated Component Suppliers in Prefabricated Buildings Based on the Controlled Interval and Memory Method Extended under the Probability Language Terminology Set

Accurately evaluating the vulnerability of prefabricated components in prefabricated buildings is the basis of scientific management of its supply chain. Thus, a novel vulnerability evaluation method for the suppliers of prefabricated components in the context of prefabricated buildings was proposed in this study. First, a vulnerability evaluation index system was identified and constructed by the pressure–state–response (PSR) model. With the clear logic and strong applicability of PSR, this system, including 18 indexes, was easy to understand and exhibited strong practicability. The weights were then determined via the multiplicative analytic hierarchy process with the expansion of a probabilistic language terminology set (PLTS). PLTS could describe decision information more comprehensively, so the evaluation result is more scientific. Subsequently, the probability of the vulnerability level was superimposed in a parallel bottom-to-top method via the controlled interval and memory (CIM) models, and these were extended by the PLTS. This set handled the uncertain information in the decision-making process more efficiently and accurately, and finally determined the vulnerability distribution. Ultimately, the probability of each vulnerability level was determined by combining the weight information. The reconstruction and resettlement housing construction project of urban shanty towns in the Taohua South Road Community in Xihu District, Nanchang City, was selected as a case study. The case study proves the effectiveness of this method, which has higher resolution and is more convenient for managers to make decisions.

CCTVs and the Criminal City

This paper investigates how surveillance technologies used by the police, such as close circuit cameras (CCTVs) along with facial recognition, further solidify the perception of poor areas of the city as criminal, thus limiting the opportunities of the residents of these areas culturally, socially, and economically. Slums, immigrant colonies, and shanty towns have long been considered hotbeds of crime and illegal activities. These areas are generally marked as unsafe in the popular imagination. I am interested to see how (and if) communities in these spaces modify their behaviour in order to escape the extra watchful presence of the state in the form of CCTV cameras. I also want to see how these spaces evolve in terms of their interaction with other parts of the city as a result of the use of such exacerbated surveillance technologies. This paper is based on ongoing ethnographic work in one such marked area in the North East part of Delhi where video footage from CCTV cameras, along with mobile phone cameras, was extensively used for police investigations (with additional use of a standalone facial recognition program) following deadly riots that killed a record number of people in the area and destroyed many businesses in February 2020.

Relations between individual residence trajectory and macro social transformation: Passive relocation migrants in shanty town in Shanghai, China

In the context of socio-economic transformations, Chinese cities have entered the era of inventory land renewal, large-scale urban renewal, and old city renovation, which have triggered a large number of passive relocation behaviors, which led to intra-urban movements and migration. It is essential to understand what the Chinese family is undergoing before and after the relocation and how the macro social power impacts the trajectory of residence and living patterns of individual families step by step. Based on the oral history of Hongzhen Old Street informal settlement in Shanghai, using a qualitative research method, this article takes the life course of passive relocation migrants as a starting point, and summarizes a migrant residence transformation pedigree and survival mechanism from the gradual and struggling spatial practice before relocation, the decision-making and negotiation process, to the life after relocation with difficulty in taking root and community re-connection. This study reveals that in the long process of top-down land expropriation, residents have always been in an unsettled and temporary state, with their dynamic residential needs ignored, accelerating the decay and disorder of their neighborhood. In addition, although they have improved their spatial living conditions after the relocation, they still face the marginalization and deprivation of social resources. These problems reflect land economy, social capital, housing policy, and urban development mode.

Third-and Fourth-Tier City Real Estate Collection Trust Plan: Research on Risk Assessment System

With housing price soaring during the past few years, China’s government has adopted a series of policies to control the house market. As a result, housing price can hardly continue to rise and some first-tier cities, even saw a small decrease in the rocketing price. Meanwhile, due to the renovation of shanty towns and the popularity of purchasing property in the hometown, housing price in the majority of third-tier cities doubled and achieved 10,000 yuan per square metre. However, when the renovation of shanty towns ends, most of them lose the support of their property market, which exposes many real estate developers to great pressure. On the other hand, as an important financing method for property developers, how can trust assess the risk of real estate projects in third-tier cities? Based on previous research, this paper chooses Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process to assess the particular risk of real estate projects in third and fourth-tier cities. It also uses a real project in a trust company to prove the efficacity of this hierarchy. We found that for trust companies, the ability to collect cash flows and the collateral of guarantees count most when assessing real estate projects in third-tier cities.

Peripheral pharmaceutical intervention program for the prevention of iron deficiency anemia in children

Objective: To identify how the implementation of a peripheral pharmaceutical intervention program influences the prevention of anemia in children from 0 to 5 years of age.Materials and methods: A quantitative, descriptive and comparative study was conducted with a purposive non-probability sampling. The study population consisted of 40 children and the sample included 28 children from 0 to 5 yearsof age, of both sexes, living in the Carlos Manuel Cox shanty town, located in the district of Ancón, province of Lima, Peru. Hematological tests were performed to measure the hemoglobin level in the children, and questionnaires wereadministered to their caregivers or parents. An awareness program on anemia, parasitosis, nutritious food, good hygienepractices, medical control, and medical and pharmacological treatment was undertaken. A Likert scale was used to determine the prevention of iron deficiency anemia. For blood analysis, a microhematocrit test was performed to measure the hemoglobin levels, prior to the awareness of anemia. The sampling was carried out by a medical technologist together with the researchers. Data processing was conducted using IBM SPSS Statistics V25.0 and Microsoft Excel programs. Correlations between variables were determined using Pearson’s correlation coefficient. Results:Concerning the results of knowledge about anemia, a mean of 7.6 and a standard deviation of 2.5 were found in the pretest, and a mean of 18.0 and a standard deviation of 0.0 were found in the posttest, thus there was no increase in knowledge. Conclusions: The pharmaceutical intervention program positively influences the knowledge of mothers about the prevention of iron deficiency anemia in their children.

Who are the gig workers? Evidence from mapping the residential locations of ride-hailing drivers by a big data approach

One of the challenges faced in understanding platform gig work is who are the gig workers involved in this novelty labour relationship. We attempt to answer it by using mobile phone trajectories to map the residential locations of gig drivers in the ride-hailing platform economy in Chengdu, China. Then, we reconstruct the relationships between the spatial structure of the ride-hailing drivers and their neighbourhood-level sociodemographic characteristics and residential built environments. We found that ride-hailing drivers are more likely to come from neighbourhoods with lower-income and less regular job opportunities. Their residences formed living clusters with urban villages, resettlement houses, and shanty towns. Our study suggests that ride-hailing platforms do not liberate gig workers from the structural rural-urban disparities but form a continuation of the structural barriers and discrimination in the division of labour, even if the technological innovation discourse in the platform economy argues that the gig driving can attract the well-educated and other minorities.

Parallax techniques in presentations ceremonial theatre Ibn al-Rumi in the shanty towns (a model)

خضع المنظر المسرحي لتطورات تقنية عديدة على اختلاف العصور وتباينت في كل مرحلة زمنية إذ إن تصميم النظر وتركيبته تنطلق من شكل الفضاء سواء أكان مفتوحاً أو مغلقاً بنظرة سريعة إلى مختلف العصور التاريخية نجد الظاهرة الاحتفالية الدينية بكل أنواعها وتعدداتها، فالممارسات الاحتفالية لدى البابليين ما هي إلا الجذور الأولى للظاهرة المسرحية كذلك نجد في الاحتفالات الدينية لدى سكان وادي النيل تشابها طقوسيا ولكن نتيجة عدم وجود ادلة قطعية على تواجد هذه المظاهر بوصفها جنسا مسرحيا اصبح من غير الممكن تحديد خصوصية جمالية لرسم المعالم المسرحية لهاتين الحضارتين لذلك تظل تلك الممارسات المسرحية عملية طقوسية في مجملها وظلت تراوح في نهجها الديني

Assessment of the Social and Physical Characteristics of Obiagu Shanty Area in Enugu Metropolitan City, Nigeria

The persistent rise of the urban population and high housing rent has driven many to shanty towns. However, due to the increased population of the shanty towns, the social and physical characteristics of the towns have deteriorated. The study assessed the social and physical characteristics of Obiagu Shanty Area in Enugu Metropolitan City, Nigeria, with the purpose of establishing the extent of the rehabilitation and its impacts in the lives of the residents, as well as provides a better alternative. The data was obtained using a questionnaire survey. The statistical techniques employed to analyse the data are descriptive statistics (such as simple percentages, standard deviation and mean). The study, in general terms identified that the level of physical and social characteristics of Obiagu Shanty Area is highly negative. The study also reveals poor infrastructural amenities in the area. It demonstrates that the government is failing to fulfill its responsibilities in terms of urban development and infrastructure renewal. Furthermore, the study shows that private individuals and communities do not actively participate in urban regeneration and infrastructural renewal efforts in Obiagu Shanty Area. Therefore, the study recommends some retrofitting measures, such as the construction of modern houses with modern facilities and good sewage systems, the government partnering with private organisations/individuals or the community to assist in the remodeling of structures in the area, and constant sensitisation of residents by the government and NGOs on the negative health consequences of living in a dirty environment, among other things. Keywords: Shanty Area, Social Characteristics, Physical Characteristics, Metropolitan City, Retrofitting Measures, Urban Regeneration DOI: 10.7176/JEES/12-9-05 Publication date: September 30 th 2022

On the Character and Causes of Inequality in Latin America

On the Character and Causes of Inequality in Latin America

Proactive state geographies: Geocoded intelligence in London’s ‘suburban shanty towns’

This article draws on an ethnographic approach to concrete institutional practices and machine learning algorithms to analyse emergent proactive state geographies in London’s suburbs. The article assesses predictive modelling in housing enforcement in respect of the government of migrant housing precarity in the interstices of rentier and racial capitalism. The article develops two central contentions concerning these proactive state geographies. First, relations between geopolitics, the racialisation of urban space and algorithms need to be situated in relation to institutional state prosaics. ‘Connecting the dots’, a motif of post-9/11 pre-emptive securitisation, is located in suburban housing enforcement regimes corresponding to the politicisation of overcrowding, while the enactment of data-driven intelligence, including in raids, renews the border in these suburbs. Second, proactive technologies work through state data infrastructures. Geocoding, a technique of urban legibility designating the property grid, organises the algorithmic production of legality/illegality and consequently public health and housing futures in the digital city. While the analysis stems from a specific context, the article aims to contribute to interdisciplinary debates about politics, algorithms and state transformation spanning political, urban and digital geography and cognate fields.

Clinical Psychological Interventions for Children between 8 and 11 Years Old in Populations with Socioeconomic Vulnerability

The gradual increase of poverty rates in Latin America and its effects on children from socioeconomically vulnerable populations raises the need for innovative responses in the field of mental health. Faced with these needs, the present study aims at evaluating the efficacy of focused psychotherapy, where Viktor Frankl´s and Héctor Fiorini´s theoretical frameworks are integrated, in children from 8 to 11 years old who attend a Psychological Orientation Center located in a shanty town in Buenos Aires. The 50 records that make up this research are part of a sample that includes 330 medical records of patients of different ages who underwent treatment between 2014 and 2019. The issues to be addressed (foci) were identified at the beginning of each individual treatment. Participants were assessed before and after treatment with the House-Tree-Person (H-T-P) graphic projective technique and, in addition, a case study was analyzed by interviewing the patient and therapists to make a qualitative outcome assessment. The outcomes, measured using the Wilcoxon test, revealed that there were significant improvements in various issues raised throughout the treatments. The revision of the HTP technique revealed that patients presented favorable changes in issues such as interpersonal relationships, self-esteem and ego strength. The case study reinforced these results. The findings of this research suggest that the integration of Logo therapy and Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy could be an effective and an innovative approach to address the current issues affecting children in socio-economically vulnerable populations.

El problema de la vivienda y la urbanización de la periferia norte de Santiago durante la administración de Carlos Ibáñez del Campo (Renca, 1927-1931)

This article addresses the development of Santiago’s urban periphery through the analysis of Renca’s case during Carlos Ibanez del Campo’s dictatorship (1927-1931). A place that was somewhere in between urban and rural. In this case, the housing and basic services problem was strongly manifested in the shanty towns or poblaciones which were characterized by a lack of hygiene, equipment, and infrastructure. Ibanez responded to this situation by implementing a legislation and a bureaucracy that sought to regularize the configuration of these growing shanty towns by reinforcing the municipality (local council) and the Intendencia’s role (provincial government). This action was linked to massive and active neighborhood organization. Furthermore, the analysis of different documentary sources will highlight the relevance of new urban actors such as the “mejoreros” and long-term site buyers, which promoted a change in housing policy and the way in which Santiago’s growth was addressed.

The Representation of Urban Shanty Towns in Literature Written in the Era of Japanese Colonial Rule - Focusing on Saryang Kim’s Novel Toseonglang -

The Representation of Urban Shanty Towns in Literature Written in the Era of Japanese Colonial Rule - Focusing on Saryang Kim’s Novel Toseonglang -

Resistencias desde la periferia: población Rrom en España

El artículo analiza, a partir del caso de estudio de asentamientos chabolistas en Madrid y Barcelona, la población Rrom que ubicándose en la periferia de dichas ciudades malvive en condiciones de pobreza y exclusión social. Basándose en una investigación de corte cualitativo donde se aprecian similitudes en cuanto a los medios de subsistencia empleados por el colectivo, así cómo la movilidad constante tanto en España como en Europa, el artículo se interroga el papel que tienen las administraciones públicas a nivel local y regional en la búsqueda de soluciones que permitan una mayor inclusión social y mejoras en la calidad de vida. Mediante una comparativa de los asentamientos, esta investigación presenta la experiencia profesional desarrollada en asentamientos con altos niveles de exclusión social donde se pone de relieve, la necesidad de intervenir socialmente desde el Trabajo Social y además, bajo una armonización de protocolos de atención social a la población Rrom desde una perspectiva igualitaria dentro de la Unión Europea, debido sobre todo a las prácticas similares de subsistencia de la población y por compartir procesos de exclusión y pobreza desde origen. The article analyzes, based on the case study of shanty towns in Madrid and Barcelona, the Rrom population, which is located on the periphery of these cities, lives in conditions of poverty and social exclusion. Based on qualitative research where similarities can be seen in terms of livelihoods used by the collective, as well as constant mobility both in Spain and in Europe, the article questions the role of public administrations at local and regional level in the search for solutions that allow greater social inclusion and improvements in the quality of life. Through a comparison of the settlements, this research presents the professional experience developed in settlements with high levels of social exclusion where it is highlighted, the need to intervene socially from Social Work and also, under a harmonization of social care protocols to the Rrom population from an egalitarian perspective within the European Union, mainly due to the similar practices of subsistence of the population and for sharing processes of exclusion and poverty from origin.

Scrambling For Safety In The Eye Of Dorian: Mental Health Consequences Of Exposure To A Climate-Driven Hurricane.

As climate change alters the behavior of Atlantic hurricanes, these storms are trending stronger, wetter, and slower moving over coastal and island populations. Hurricane Dorian exemplified all three attributes. Dorian's destructive passage over the Abaco Islands, Bahamas, on September 1, 2019, exposed residents of its capital, Marsh Harbour, to a prolonged encounter with the storm's core. After Dorian's fierce front eyewall and towering storm surge tore apart shanty town habitats and eviscerated concrete homesites, residents desperately sought refuge during the brief respite when Dorian's eye passed directly overhead. The category 5 winds then resumed abruptly and Dorian continued its relentless destruction. This article focuses on the storm's mental health consequences, drawing on observations of on-site clinicians as well as findings from previous research on the mental health effects of Atlantic hurricanes and the transformation of hurricane hazards resulting from climate change. To protect island and coastal populations against climate-driven storms, disaster planning policy should emphasize resilience-focused prevention and mitigation strategies. In the aftermath of these events, health system response should include community outreach, case finding, and evidence-based interventions that optimize the use of mental health professionals.

Shifting the Meaning of Democracy: Race, Politics, and Culture in the United States and Brazil. By Jessica Lynn Graham (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2019) 392 pp. $85.00 cloth $39.95 paper

This important study “analyzes the…emergence of racially inclusive nationalisms” as dominant state narratives in Brazil and the United States between 1930 and 1945. Graham looks at how this shift occurred and the way that it related to concepts of democracy and to the relations between the two countries, especially during World War II. Graham refers to articulations of inclusive race-based nationalism as “racial democracy,” which she applies to both Brazil and the United States in this period (6–7). This study focuses almost entirely on political narrative and its relationship to the political and economic context of the time. Graham does not analyze the actual conditions related to race in either country but only the political narratives of the time and how they related to each country and to the war.Both countries used these ideas to ward off charges of being undemocratic, though in different ways. The Brazilian narrative claimed that “racial harmony” and the centrality of African-derived culture made their dictatorship under Getulio Vargas “democratic.” At the same time, the U.S. narrative suggested that its political democracy essentially legitimated its tortured race relations. Brazil and the United States worked together to legitimize each other’s racial and democratic images to strengthen their wartime alliance. They collaborated on cultural productions and supported non-action-oriented forms of racial democracy. Brazil’s demarginalization of black culture, which was part of the shift to racially inclusive nationalism, was reflected, for example, in the perception of samba as “nefarious” or witchy to a view of it as a “national treasure” legitimated by the Vargas administration. Similarly, in the United States, jazz, which mainstream society in 1922 might have slighted as “so-called music,” by the 1940s had become “the best of authentic U.S. musical culture and … project[ed] an image of a racially harmonious nation.”Graham argues convincingly that the picture of racial democracy that emerges from this study is a doctrine that “was—and is contingent upon place and time” (262); both countries based their narratives on a denial of real circumstances with regard to race and democracy. She believes that this approach to national narrative continued in both countries during the Cold War, and in Brazil was used to legitimate the military dictatorship from 1964 to 1985 (262). These doctrines also had the effect of identifying black activists in both countries as threats to national security. In Brazil, authorities depicted shanty towns as hotbeds of communism, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy’s Committee on Anti-American Activities similarly accused U.S. black activists of communism. Demarginalization may have resulted in black culture becoming more visible and some black artists becoming more prosperous, but, as Graham points out, most often through the mediation of such white entertainers as Carmen Miranda or Elvis Presley.This study’s presentation of the issues of race and democracy in the United States and Brazil carefully places the issues, and how they were viewed in each country, in dramatic historical perspective.