Attitudes Towards Spontaneous Settlement in Third World Cities

Abstract

The rapidity with which urbanisation is now proceeding in the Third World and the enormity of the problems this process is producing have to date been very little recognised in terms of research effort either within the Third World itself or within the economically advanced nations. This is surprising in view of the startling nature of even the most basic and easily accessible facts. Turner has, for instance, pointed out that within the lifetime of many of its present inhabitants the population of Lima will increase one thousand per cent¹. This is one simple measure of the magnitude of urbanisation processes now well under way in the Third World and indeed rapidly accelerating. In 1940 Lima was a city of 600 000 people: it is expected that on present trends Lima’s population will have grown to six million by 1990. Calcutta is already approaching seven millions and will at least double in population within the next twenty-five years. With urban growth rates generally between 3 and 10 per cent, Third World cities, in terms of their built environment and especially in housing provision, can be said not simply to be bursting but more accurately to have burst already at the seams. Substantial and growing numbers of people are living within or on the edges of such cities in what may be called spontaneous settlements.