Territoriality and Spatial Forms

The chapter sets out a typology of urban slums and squatter settlements. It draws on a survey of 45 cities world wide that was undertaken specifically for the study, and on an extensive range of analytical and empirical studies. It reviews Slum Formantion Processes and Spatial Types, examining inner-city slums, slum estates, squatter settlements, illegal settlements and subdivisions comparing their diverse spatial forms and associated opportunities for their legitimising, upgrading and development. The Origins and Age of slums are categorised into historic city-centre slums, slum estates, informal settlements in the process of consolidation, and recent slums. They are also examined in the locational context: central, peripheral and scattered island; and by size and scale. The last section of the chapter analyses the development dynamics of slums in terms of individual and community-led development, intervention-improved slums, upgraded slums, those lacking community incentives for improvement, and the creation of incipient slums.