Slums: The History of a Global Injustice

by Alan Mayne

More than half of the world’s population now lives in urban areas, and a billion of these urban dwellers reside in neighborhoods of entrenched disadvantage—neighborhoods that are characterized  as slums. Slums are often seen as a debilitating and even subversive presence within society. In reality, though, it is public policies that are often at fault, not the people who live in these neighborhoods.

In this comprehensive global history, Alan Mayne explores the evolution and meaning of the word “slum,” from its origins in London in the early nineteenth century to its use as a slur against the favela communities in the lead-up to the Rio Olympics in 2016. Mayne shows how the word slum has been extensively used for two hundred years to condemn and disparage poor communities, with the result that these agendas are now indivisible from the word’s essence. He probes beyond the stereotypes of deviance, social disorganization, inertia, and degraded environments to explore the spatial coherence, collective sense of community, and effective social organization of poor and marginalized neighborhoods over the last two centuries.

In mounting a case for the word’s elimination from the language of progressive urban social reform, Slums is a must-read book for all those interested in social history and the importance of the world’s vibrant and vital neighborhoods.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published October 15, 2017

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mayne's book looks at the history of slums. In other words, he looks at how society sees the slum and what reactions society has to them. He links not only class but race and colonialism. It is a book that deepens the understanding of not only Dicken, but work's like Boo's Beautiful Forevers.

[Beth]

This book held out the hope of seeing impoverished areas from the point of view of those living there, and getting an idea of what they might like to see improved about them, and how that might be achieved. Instead I've read 80 pages about how "slum" is a deceitful term that encourages othering and an attitude of spectacle and pity toward these areas. Maybe it gets there eventually, but I'm bored.