Since the middle of last century, mass of immigrants have been attracted to cities in developing countries by the explosive working opportunities created under the neoliberal structural adjustment policies in these countries. The informal sector of economy consisted of these new urban immigrants becomes more and more important in countries’ development. However, the surge of immigration’s settlements also brings huge pressure to the urban land, especially when these settlements are mostly illegal or “extra-legal”, “built without conformance to zoning or service regulations and enabled by bribes, populist governments, or property speculators who hope for eventual regularization and compensation for their investment.”[3] This situation brings problems both to city planning and the migrants themselves.
Mike Davis takes a more broad view looking at current slum conditions and the informal sector of economy supporting behind it in his book Planet of Slums. In one of the chapters “ a surplus humanity”, Davis mentioned the competition between informal sector and some small-scale formal enterprises, which reveals some part of hard life for informal employees, especially with the pressure of exorbitant rent fees when more urban land becomes private. The increasing strain in work and the hazard in illegal slum settlement form a potential political problem for the governors. A narrative non-fiction by Katherine Boo, Behind the Beautiful, rises up this question during the narration of author’s four-year living experience in a slum called Annawadi in India.
（http://www.amazon.com/Behind-Beautiful-Forevers-Mumbai-Undercity/dp/1400067553 )
Compared to Davis, Robert Neuwirth provides us with more optimistic vision through his experience in four different slums. He raises up a new point that “people are adapting: they are demonstrating survival strategies that make life not only bearable but in some places and in some respects quite manageable.” [3] While, the adaption not only occurs in migrants’ life, but also in original urban inhabitants’. They already get used to a certain life style with the informal economy.
As John Beardsley mentioned in his essay “ A Billion Slum Dwellers and Counting”, both Davis and Neuwirth didn’t provide solution for improving slum dwellers’ life. I think this is what we, as architects should consider in the city planning, as the importance of these informal economy supporters.
work cited
1.. Planet of Slums, Mike Davis
2.Shadow Cities, Robert Neuwirth
3.A Billion Slum Dwellers and Counting, John Beardsley