Were there slums in ancient times? What do you call it? What's in it?

Slums have been used to refer to the worst living conditions and the most unsanitary environment since 19 first appeared in the 1920s. Slums are shelters for marginal activities, including crime, prostitution and drug abuse, sources of infection that may lead to many infectious diseases raging in urban areas, and places that have nothing to do with integrity and health. Nowadays, the general term "slum" is vague and derogatory. This word has multiple meanings. This word is rarely used when it refers to a more sensitive, politically correct and academically strict meaning. However, in developing countries, this word is not as derogatory as it was at the beginning, and only refers to crude or informal housing.

In the report, the word "slum" refers to various low-income settlements and poor human living conditions. The definition of slum is simply "a densely populated urban area characterized by substandard housing and poverty." This straightforward description reflects the main physical and social characteristics of slums, but some contents need to be added in this framework.

Traditionally, slums used to be aristocratic residential areas, even places that people yearned for. However, after the original residents moved to new areas and areas with better conditions in the city, slums went from bad to worse. Gradually, the house was subdivided and rented to low-income people, and the original house conditions became worse and worse.

There are many informal buildings in slums now. Slums have quickly become the most obvious manifestation of urban poverty in developing countries. Slums have many different names, and the arrangement of house ownership is also different. In all slums, buildings range from the simplest shacks to permanent buildings, and some houses are even in amazing condition. However, most slums lack clean water, electricity, sanitation facilities and other basic services.

At present, slums can be divided into two categories-"slums of hope" and "slums of despair". The first category refers to the rising residential areas. Generally speaking, houses are relatively new, and they are generally self-built. This kind of slum has recently been renovated and restored, or is currently under development. The second category is "declining" communities, whose environmental conditions and service levels seem to deteriorate inevitably. Unfortunately, the history of slums in Europe, North America and Australia proves that without proper government intervention, the slums of hope can easily degenerate into slums of despair. This self-reinforcing depravity can last for a long time.

Recently, a United Nations expert group recommended to policy makers and international institutions a definition of slums that experts thought was more "feasible". This definition aims to make the improvement plan mainly aimed at the material and legal problems faced by slum dwellers more accurate. These experts believe that slums have the following characteristics to varying degrees:

Lack of safe water

Inadequate health and other infrastructure.

Poor housing structure

overpopulation

The right to subsistence cannot be guaranteed. The above characteristics are put forward because, to a great extent, these characteristics can be measured and can be used to evaluate the development progress of the Millennium Development Goal of significantly improving the lives of at least 1 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. Why do slums exist?

Although slums are defined, "why do slums exist?" The problem still exists. There are many factors in the formation of slums. The permanent existence of slums is also caused by a large number of factors. Among these factors, the rapid migration of rural population to cities, the intensification of urban poverty and inequality, the insecurity of housing rights and globalization have all led to the emergence and persistence of slums.

Rural population is rapidly migrating to cities-the proportion of agricultural population in developing countries has dropped by 20% to 30% since 1950s. Most immigrants from poor cities come to cities voluntarily from rural areas in order to explore real or imagined economic opportunities. Part of the economic opportunities are brought by the development of urban informal sector. The growth of many large-scale informal and illegal residential areas in the city center clearly reflects the development of the informal sector. In many cities, the informal sector accounts for as much as 60% of the urban employed population. By providing products and services, the informal sector will well meet the needs of the same number of citizens.

In sub-Saharan Africa, 78% of non-agricultural employed people are employed in the informal sector, creating 42% of GDP. In the coming 10 year, more than 90% of the new employment opportunities in urban areas will be created by small enterprises in the informal sector. At the same time, in most developing countries, the job market in the urban formal sector has grown little or even shrunk. As a result, the informal sector has exploded, followed by the rapid development of poverty and slums.

Political conflicts will also promote urban migration, not only at home, but also across national borders. In Angola and Mozambique, civil wars forced many rural residents to flee to relatively safe places, which largely led to urbanization. In the1980s, about 4.5 million Mozambicans moved to urban areas.

UN-HABITAT predicts that by 2030, Africa will no longer be a continent full of rural areas, because more than half of the population will live in cities and towns-all these changes took only one generation.

However, the rapid migration of rural population to cities is not limited to Africa. In the past 40 years, Latin America has experienced rapid urbanization. At present, 75% of the population lives in urban areas. Asia accounts for 80% of the global population and is also experiencing urbanization. At present, 36% of Asians live in cities. Some of the largest cities in the world, such as Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangkok, have a population of over100000, of which 1/3 to 1/2 live in slums.

The rapid migration of a large number of rural people to cities has accelerated the formation of slums. Urban planning and management system is difficult to cope with the influx of population.

Poverty and inequality-At present, about 50% of the global population lives in urban areas, 32% in slums and 43% in slums in developing countries. It is important to remember that although not all these people live in urban slums, at present, 50% of the people in the world live on less than two dollars a day. The UN-HABITAT report found that "the efficiency of poverty alleviation is disappointing for two reasons. Many of the poorest countries have slow economic growth; Inequality persists, which hinders the poor from participating in promoting economic growth.

Although there is no reliable global urban poverty assessment, it is generally believed that the poverty situation in urban areas is lower than that in rural areas. However, the growth rate of the global urban poor population is much higher than that of rural areas. In developing countries that have implemented structural adjustment plans, urban poverty has been increasing in most countries, and structural adjustment plans often have a negative impact on urban economic growth and formal employment opportunities. The absolute population of poverty and malnutrition in urban areas is increasing. Similarly, the proportion of poor and malnourished people in urban areas is increasing. In a word, poverty is developing to cities, and this process is now called "urbanization of poverty".

The right to live is not guaranteed-the lack of the right to live is one of the main reasons for the existence of slums. The right to live is not guaranteed, and slum dwellers have no way or motivation to improve their living environment. The guarantee of residence right is often a prerequisite for obtaining other economic and social opportunities, including trust, public services and employment opportunities. Studies have repeatedly proved that slum upgrading projects initiated by communities are more likely to be implemented and actually succeed in slums where residents' land rights and residence rights are guaranteed, whether formally or informally protected.

Globalization-the appearance of slums is closely related to the economic cycle and the development trend of national income distribution. In recent years, the emergence of slums is also closely related to the national economic development policy. The report found that the periodicity of capitalism, the increasing demand of high-tech labor relative to low-tech labor, and the negative effects of globalization, especially the alternation of economic prosperity and depression, aggravated inequality and made the distribution of new wealth more and more uneven, all caused the remarkable growth of slums.

The report pointed out that in the past, the global economic system created famous slums in today's big cities in developed countries. Now, this system may be repeated in developing countries.