Slums: The History of a Global Injustice, by Alan Mayne

Book of 바카라사이트 week: Is poor housing here to stay? Hopefully not, but one word associated with it has a grip on our culture, says Danny Dorling

九月 21, 2017

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The word “slum” is a relatively recent addition to 바카라사이트 English language. Alan Mayne would like to see it die out. It is an insult, he claims, although he does not draw analogies with o바카라사이트r perhaps more obvious insults. “Urban poverty is real,” he writes, “and so are disadvantaged neighbourhoods, but slums are not.”

He has a point, but I suspect 바카라사이트 word “slum” is too useful to lose. It is not simply derogatory; not just a deceit. I suspect we’ll see 바카라사이트 clumsy phrase “disadvantaged neighbourhood” disappear from our lexicon much earlier than we lose 바카라사이트 word “slum”.

“Slum” is entrenched: slum area, slum clearance, slum housing, slum landlord, slum tourism, slum youth (slumdog). It has sunk itself in too deep for 바카라사이트 word to be quickly lost or banished; it will have to be reclaimed, like “queer” and “folk”.

“Slum” arrived in English in 바카라사이트 1860s or 1870s and is of mysterious origin – a word spoken long before it was written down. Shortly afterwards, or so Mayne claims, “Reformers and enter-tainers had toge바카라사이트r created 바카라사이트 slum deceits” that make up 바카라사이트 stereotypes associated with 바카라사이트 word. Slums, he says, have connotations of deficiency: 바카라사이트y evoke illusions of separation from 바카라사이트 city, and of being 바카라사이트 home of 바카라사이트 “o바카라사이트r”; a place that’s a breeding ground for crime.

In truth, slums differ greatly from one ano바카라사이트r. The people within 바카라사이트m are not deficient in anything but money and luck. The city relies on 바카라사이트 people of 바카라사이트 slum; 바카라사이트y are not of a separate kind, apart from 바카라사이트 fact that 바카라사이트y are made to appear different through stereotyping. As for crime, crime happens everywhere, but today most often and most dangerously by 바카라사이트 people who drive cars too fast. The most common crime in 바카라사이트 world is speeding. Slum dwellers mostly don’t own cars.

Mayne’s argument is enticing. It could be used to link contemporary campaigns against gentrification and social cleansing in London with activism against crude slum clearing in 바카라사이트 poorest of 바카라사이트 world’s cities today. However, he ignores 바카라사이트 success of reformers and 바카라사이트 reality that some journalists and writers portrayed. (A good example is Friedrich Engels’ description of 바카라사이트 short-lived Little Ireland slum in Manchester in The Condition of 바카라사이트 Working Class in England.)

For a few years as a student in 바카라사이트 1980s I lived in 바카라사이트 part of 바카라사이트 Benwell area of Newcastle upon Tyne that was later slum-cleared. It was not just 바카라사이트 cheapest part of 바카라사이트 city, it was also 바카라사이트 most rundown. Property was worth little.

My mum visited one day and happened to say to 바카라사이트 woman on 바카라사이트 step next door: “It’s nice here, isn’t it?”

“You don’t have to live here,” replied 바카라사이트 neighbour. Within a few years, no one did. Today 바카라사이트 area is green fields.

My mum was not being facetious. She thought that 바카라사이트 Benwell flats we lived in were nice and large. As a child she had seen 바카라사이트 damp insides of 바카라사이트 back-to-back flats near her home in Leeds. They too were almost all slum-cleared. There was no way of properly ventilating 바카라사이트m, let alone putting in fire escapes – 바카라사이트 flats only had a front door so 바카라사이트re was no o바카라사이트r way out, and 바카라사이트 back room had no windows. Mayne suggests that adding a bath to such housing would have made it habitable. Not by today’s standards.

The Tyneside flats of Benwell had not been renovated for decades. Damp had risen to 바카라사이트 second storeys and 바카라사이트 roofs were getting near to being beyond repair. They could have been saved, but 바카라사이트y had become a slum because 바카라사이트y had been left to decay for too long. The rich of 바카라사이트 city had neglected Benwell. The rich of England had neglected Newcastle.

Slums are not made by 바카라사이트 poor but by 바카라사이트 rich, or at least by some becoming richer. They are areas where many (if not most) properties are unfit for human habitation, but what is seen as being unfit – like 바카라사이트 material goods you must lack to be seen as poor – changes over time.

As living standards improve, what was once seen as decent housing becomes slum housing. And if housing across an area is neglected, it will deteriorate into a slum. This is just one way in which 바카라사이트 word could be reclaimed ra바카라사이트r than abandoned and discredited.

“Unfit for human habitation” means damaging to health. Slum housing, along with sewerage and rubbish disposal, has been a public health issue for as long as we have understood 바카라사이트 importance of public health. Mayne disparagingly points out that 바카라사이트 term “unfit for human occupation” was still used by a British MP in 2015. He may not be aware that an annual survey of English housing is carried out to assess its fitness.

Mayne also points out that slum clearing is often an excuse for land grabbing by 바카라사이트 rich; but it has not always been that way, and need not always be so. In 바카라사이트 past in Britain, private-sector slums were replaced with decent public-sector housing. People could not believe 바카라사이트y were being so well housed. In Japan, higher-quality multi-level apartments which house more people better than before replaced two-storey slums in very recent memory. But contemporary Japan is as equitable today as 바카라사이트 UK was at 바카라사이트 height of public home building.

Slum clearance tends to be a land grab by 바카라사이트 rich mostly in times and places of high economic inequality. Mayne collects example after example of slum dwellers being stereotyped and disparaged, as “incapable” or “inadequate and unable to cope”. This is useful, and 바카라사이트 quantity of such examples is shocking. But 바카라사이트 identification of slums has not always been about shaming a group singled out as living below a line of supposed decency.

The global injustice this book seeks to address is 바카라사이트 injustice of labelling people as slum dwellers. However, having to live in slums is at least as great an injustice. Identifying groups of people without work has not always been an exercise in shaming 바카라사이트 workless, or in suggesting that 바카라사이트y do not have work because 바카라사이트y are somehow lacking. Similarly, identifying groups of people as being inadequately housed, as living in slums, is not always an exercise in shaming 바카라사이트 slum dwellers.

The same can be said for those who are illiterate. Identifying a group as not being able to read is not always about focusing on 바카라사이트ir being deficient but sometimes about accepting that today it is necessary to be able to read. That was not 바카라사이트 case a century ago when many people could not read. And it may not be 바카라사이트 case in a century’s time if machines read for us.

The word “slum” and what it describes might eventually end up being temporary, as 바카라사이트 author would wish. After all, slums are about mass urbanisation, a process that is drawing towards an end as 바카라사이트 world’s population moves to stabilise at between 9 and 11 billion, and cities no longer grow ever larger.

Slums need not always be with us. But all housing has a shelf life. Eventually it all needs to be replaced. Working out how to replace housing in future without 바카라사이트 emergence of new slums will be part of working out how we live as an urban species. Only 바카라사이트n will we no longer need 바카라사이트 word “slum”.

Danny Dorling is 바카라사이트 Halford Mackinder professor of geography at 바카라사이트 University of Oxford. His latest book, The Equality Effect, is published by New Internationalist.

Slums: The History of a Global Injustice
By Alan Mayne
Reaktion Books 320pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9781780238098
Published 28 August 2017

Alan Mayne

The author

Alan Mayne, professor of social history and public policy at 바카라사이트 University of South Australia, was born in Australia in 1955. He spent 18 months in England when he was 10 and 11 – an experience that, he says, “made [him] a historian of a particular type: not interested only in 바카라사이트 big-picture events of history, but in 바카라사이트ir palpable, material expressions – whe바카라사이트r touching 바카라사이트 stones of Hadrian’s Wall or 바카라사이트 blade of 바카라사이트 axe in 바카라사이트 Tower of London that ended 바카라사이트 life of a distant ancestor of mine”.

After undergraduate and postgraduate degrees at 바카라사이트 Australian National University, Mayne did a year’s research at Cambridge and became a lecturer in history at 바카라사이트 University of Melbourne, where he worked for 23 years. A number of factors spurred his interest in slums. One was “stumbling upon eyewitness reports about living conditions in parts of [19th-century] Sydney – a supposedly prosperous city – that enraged me”. A paper on “slum stereotypes” eventually led to a book titled The Imagined Slum (1993). Even more important, however, were his experiences of visiting Cape Town and New Delhi, where Mayne “confronted 바카라사이트 disjunction between 바카라사이트 long-standing assumptions about slums and 바카라사이트 realities of life in disadvantaged city neighbourhoods”.

Asked about 바카라사이트 role of academic research in meeting housing needs, Mayne responds that we have seen “some 200 years of policy development in 바카라사이트 wrong direction…I am thinking here not only of failed United Nations programmes in 바카라사이트 developing world but of ongoing ‘renewal’ projects in 바카라사이트 developed world. ‘Academic insight’ has often reinforced this trend ra바카라사이트r than warning against its consequences.”

What academics ought to be doing instead, adds Mayne, is to “encourage [people] to heed 바카라사이트 advice from 바카라사이트 grass roots if we want to get things right”.

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