Austere conditions with less than the bare necessities to sustain a healthy lifestyle would be considered deplorable to most of Western civilization.  One room surrounded by corrugated metal, no electricity, running water, heating or cooling systems, or even windows is unfathomable to most of the United States.  However these conditions are home to so many across the world who not only live through these conditions, but also raise families and provide for loved ones as well.  Informal cities are frowned upon amongst those who simply don’t understand the current crises facing urban conditions around the world.  With such an increase in population, and no way to regulate a healthy way of life, people begin to take matters into their own hands in order to provide for loved ones.  Is there value is this meager way of life?  Is there an ostensible freedom found in slums and informal cities that most individuals find highly coveted?  Slums always have a negative connotation, however I find a happy contradiction within this lifestyle that emanates through the garbage, and those who dwell within these spaces.  From the readings there seems to be a sense of ownership and pure happiness among those who occupy informal cities.  From a distance, informal cities are ostensibly chaotic, filthy and uninhabitable areas.  Then a closer look may imply organization and a dynamic way of life that supports and maintains this increase in population.  Lagos is a great example of a congested city that contains these chaotic features but simultaneously maintains a sophisticated network of organized systems.  Inherently in Lagos is a dynamic way of living, which comes about through the constant appropriation of spaces by occupants.  Any paved space will be occupied in some way in order to accommodate everyone.  I wonder if there are certain aspects to these informal cities and slums that can b applied to our “perfect cities”, can we learn from Lagos or Mumbai?  Do these areas offer ideas that will inevitably allow the “rethinking” of all cities?  Population growth is an inevitable issue and there doesn’t seem to be a politically correct or humane way of addressing this fact.  The answer may lie within these areas that we look down upon and consider waste lands of poor individuals of which we can never coexist with.  Maybe we can learn from those who have come face to face with a dramatic and life threatening situation that forced them to rethink  their way of life.

 

1. Lagos: Harvard Project on the City, Rem Koolhaas,

2. Lagos: Harvard Project on the City, Rem Koolhaas,

3. Shadow Cities, Robert Neuwirth, Page xiv

Slums, favelas, gecekondu, and pueblos jovenes, all words with different pronunciations from different parts of the world but whose meaning is globalized and tied to the basic human necessity of shelter for the sake of protection. Within these informal settlements, the instinct to survive is materialized through every brick, concrete, and tin wall put up. At the global scale these flights for survival are made up of 70 million individuals leaving their mostly rural homes for reasons of education, war, accessibility, and money and traveling to cities to start a new life. As the book Shadow Cities demonstrates, “that’s around 1.4 million people a week, 200,000 a day, 8,000 an hour, every 130 minutes.” [1] As result, an act of survival that began with the individual has now transformed into one that indirectly affects the survival of the rest the world.

From Lagos to Lima, the opportunities for jobs that cities offer throughout the world are more than likely the biggest attraction for these invaders to migrate. In the case of Lagos, “study revealed that socio-economic factors, such as better employment and educational opportunities, etc., were the main reasons for people to migrate to Lagos.” [3] However, many of these people cannot get a professional job within the confines of the legal city and for this reason are left to maneuver their way into an informal job into the squatter strata of society. As Planet of Slums states, “the informal job sector constitutes about two fifths of the economically active population of the developing world. In Latin America the informal work force makes up 57 percent of the economy and constitutes four out of five new jobs.” [2] The informal working class is then one of the fastest growing economic classes on earth. Informal jobs allow many of these individuals who often have not had much education to sustain themselves within their own community practicing a particular task that most often they have a talent for. This work freedom is highly treasured by the inhabitants of these squatter communities and adding to it the freedom to choose where and how they build their homes gives these individuals a meaning to their materialistic unfortunate conditions.

We in the developed world have moved at least once or twice from a city to another but are restricted to the confines of what is legal. The individuals in these readings go through a same process of movement but do it within the context of the informal because it is the only thing available to them. The rent of an apartment for an individual from rural areas would simply be too great for his/her family to afford. They find pride then in the slow evolution of their housing compound and the help that their neighbors provide to continue their adaptation. The gradual construction allows then for memories to be associated with each aluminum sheet laid upon the roof or the laughter that was had with neighbors while trying to install a door. Construction for them has now gained a more human value or warmth that they begin to appreciate and hold on to strengthen their human instinct of survival.

These constructions at first sight seem to have no since of order but what is important to realize is that their order is one that although unorthodox to outsiders has a unity that is sometimes not seen by a mere observation. Each informal housing compound is adaption to the geography of the site, the shape of the formal city, and the cultural and basic needs of the inhabitants. The stacking space saving cubic homes in Rio would not be able to work in Lagos for the reason that one is in a mountainous coastal context while the other is in flat. Culture of course plays a lot into the construction of these housing units and it is seen in the materials chosen for construction. One would expect individuals coming from the country side in Kenya to utilize the same materials they used in their villages because it is what they have been using for thousands of years prior to their arrival. The materials in Latin America would be of concrete and bricks because of their cheap availability since colonial times.

Whether it is migration patterns, job opportunities, topography, materials, or even the act of building one’s own home every squatter community has something in common. The human need to survive and thrive gives purpose to these individuals while the freedom and human warmth that they find serves as a starting block for the new life they are trying to find.

Sources:

1. Robert Neuwirth, Shadow Cities(London : Routledge, 2004), xiii.
2. Mike Davis, Planet of Slums ( London ; New York : Verso, 2006), 176
3. P. Okuneye, K. Adebayo, B.T Opeolu, F.A Baddru, “ Rural-Urban Migration, Poverty and Sustainable Environment: The Case of Lagos, Nigeria” PRIPODE. http://pripode.cicred.org/spip.php?article79

For Further information take a look at these great articles and videos:
1. Migration Patterns: http://pripode.cicred.org/spip.php?article79
2. BBC Lagos Immigration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zdBRFWYizo
3. Life in Makoko district: http://www.economist.com/blogs/baobab/2012/07/nigeria%E2%80%99s-slums
4. Stories from slum residents in Kibera: http://www.economist.com/news/christmas/21568592-day-economic-life-africas-biggest-shanty-town-boomtown-slum

 

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As the worlds population quickly grows past 7 billion people, cities can no longer be bureaucratic on how they develop. In this set of four articles read for class; Planet of Slums, Shadow Cities, A Billion Slum Dwellers and Counting, and Lagos, it can be carefully noted the contrasting viewpoints on how the world sees the rapid growth of third world cities in a more or less positive light.

The Lagos reading quickly situates itself in the positive light as this rapid growth has done wonders for its economic prowess,; making it the most prosperous city in Nigeria.  One of the biggest economic centers, the Alaba International Electronics Market contains over 50,000 merchants which net over 2 Billion dollars annually (1). To top it off, Alaba accounts for 75% of the West African electronics market. Alaba has not only just become a successful marketplace for electronics but has also helped grow a surrounding city and infrastructure with no government money, making it self sufficient. The Alaba foundation built a large car park, donated books and television sets to fill a local market-funded library, built a fire station, an electric substation, and finally telecommunications towers. Again, all built at the market associations expense. (2)

While the informality of Lagos has done wonders for its economy Planet of Slums project informal cities, almost the same urban structure, in a  negative light. Focusing on the competition which drove Lagos to be prosperous can also be the downfall of the informal city. “Increasing competition within the informal sector depletes social capital and dissolves self-help networks and solidarity essential to the survival of the very poor.” (3) In other words too much competition or desperation, has led to insurmountably low prices and becomes too much to handle.

This desperation has changed the culture of society too. Focusing on Haiti: “Now everything is for sale. The woman used to receive you with hospitality, give you coffee, share all that she had in her home…”(4), now all of these things have become for sale, just to get by. I could see this easily causing social and isolation problems. When millions of people are living together in an extremely compact dirty space, where everyone is selling everything, and hospitality is next to none, social bridges and ties crumble. Contrary to this notion, a city of lax and little enforced labor rights, allows for complete freedom and a lot of times creative ways to make money.

Squatters though seemingly temporary and in many ways bad for the economy of a city, could actually turn out to do wonders instead. As many of these squatters have come from all parts of the world in order to have a better life for their families. In addition to bringing their families, many of them bring with them new economic and product ideas. These squatter cities develop with such fervor that one could assume that they grow in the most competent and sensible way. Meaning that while the first world spends large amounts of money on studying and drafting ideas for city planning, squatters let it happen naturally overtime. We probably have something to learn from them. Perhaps we all have something to learn. Squatters will need to learn how to stick up for themselves and begin to pass legislation, take risks, and find their strengths.(5) The squatter communities of today will allow the cities they are in/nearby to develop into the next bustling metropolis such as New York City, keeping in mind the horrible condition of tenement housing of the early 1920’s which through legislation, developed into the relatively clean city we know today.

1. Lagos: Harvard Project on the City, Rem Koolhaas, Page 702

2. Lagos: Harvard Project on the City, Rem Koolhaas, Page 703

3. Planet of Slums, Mike Davis, Page 184

4. Planet of Slums, Mike Davis, Page 184

5. Shadow Cities, Robert Neuwirth, Page xiv.