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'Shanty towns', "marginal" or 'informal settlements' are units of irregular, low-cost dwellings, usually on lands belonging to third parties, and most often located on the periphery of cities. These dwellings are often assembled from pieces of plywood, corrugated metal, sheets of plastic, and any other material that will provide cover.

Contents

Origins and history

Dangers

Examples

See also

References

External links

Origins and history

Shanty towns are mostly found in developing nations, or partially developed nations with an unequal distribution of wealth. In extreme cases, shanty towns have populations approaching that of a city.
Shanty towns tend to originate on the outskirts of cities. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, shanty towns, often called "Hobo jungles," appeared in cities across North America because of massive unemployment. Some were nicknamed "Hoovervilles" because the residents blamed the economic conditions on then President Herbert Hoover, who supposedly helped to create the great depression. Similarly in Canada, hobo jungles were dubbed "Bennettville" after Prime Minister Bennett.
The first recorded use of the word ''shanty'', as meaning a crude dwelling, was in Ohio in 1820. It may have been derived from the French Canadian word ''chantier'', meaning hut in a lumber camp, from the French word for timberyard. Alternatively, it could have been derived from the Irish ''sean tigh'', meaning "old house" or from the Nahuatl word chantli "home".

Dangers

Shanty town residences are almost always built without a license. Since construction is informal and unguided by urban planning, there is a near total absence of formal street grids, numbered streets, sanitation networks, electricity, or telephones. Even if these resources are present, they are likely to be disorganized, old or inferior. Shanty towns also tend to lack basic services present in more formally organized settlements, including policing, medical services, and fire fighting. Fires are a particular danger for shanty towns because of the close proximity of buildings and flammability of materials used in construction.
Shanty towns usually have a high rates of crime, suicide, and disease. On the other hand, the observer, Georg Gerster has noted (with specific reference to the ''invasões'' of Brasilia), "squatter settlements [as opposed to slums], despite their unattractive building materials, may also be places of hope, scenes of a counter-culture, with an encouraging potential for change and a strong upward impetus."^[1]

Examples

Shanty towns are present in a number of countries including South Africa (where they are often called ''squatter camps''), the Philippines (often called ''squatter areas''), Chile (where they are referred to as poblaciones callampas), Argentina (where they are referred to as villas miseria), Venezuela (where they are known as barrios), Brazil (where slums and shanty towns are known as favelas) and Peru (where they are known as pueblos jóvenes).
In many countries there are now large movements of shanty town residents. For example in South Africa Abahlali baseMjondolo have become a significant political force in the city of Durban.
Many countries have a name for marginal settlements:

★ ''Asentamientos'' (settlements) in Guatemala

★ '' in French-speaking countries

★ ''Cantegriles'' in Uruguay

★ ''Ciudades perdidas'' (lost cities) or ''Jacales'' in Mexico

★ ''Colonias'' or ''Migrant camp'' along the Mexican-American border

★ ''Favelas'' in Brazil

★ ''Gecekondu'' in Turkey

★ ''Invasiones'' (invasions) in Ecuador and Colombia

★ ''Khoshash'' in the Middle East

★ ''Jhugi/Bustee'' in India

★ ''Kachi abadi'' in Pakistan

★ ''Kijiji'' in Kenya

★ ''Mudduku'' in Sri Lanka

★ ''Poblaciones Callampas'', ''Poblas'' or ''Campamentos'' in Chile

★ ''Chacarita'' in Paraguay

★ ''Chabolas'' in Spain

★ ''Pueblos jóvenes'' (young towns) or ''barriadas'' in Peru

★ ''Ranchos'' or ''barrios'' in Venezuela

★ ''Squatter camps'' or ''imijondolo'' in South Africa

★ ''Villas miseria'' (poverty towns) in Argentina

★ ''Bairro de Lata'' in Portugal

★ ''Lušnynai'' in Lithuania

★ ''Barrio'' in Dominican Republic

★ ''Precario'' or ''tugurrio'' in Costa Rica

★ ''Kartonsko naselje'' (cardboard settlement) in Serbia
Korogocho (Kenya) see korogocho.org
australia

See also

★ Ghetto

★ Poverty

★ Refugee shelter

★ Slum

★ Squatting

★ Tent city

★ Skid row

References

1. Georg Gerster, ''Flights of Discovery: The Earth from Above'', 1978, London: Paddington, p. 116

External links

★ Slate article about an economist proposing New Orleans to be reconstructed with shanties

★ Website for a large movement of shanty town residents in South Africa