Planet of Slums
by Mike Davis
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Book Summary Information
Author: Mike DavisEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-17
ISBN: 1844671607
Number of pages: 228
Publisher: Verso
Book Reviews of Planet of Slums
Book Review: All SAPed Out
Summary: 5 Stars
What a tremendous work. I've got two chapters left to go, and thus far it's easily the most informative and scholarly book I've yet to read in 2008.
Planet of Slums is all about how the Third World's major cities are growing at what seems like an almost exponential rate. They're turning into what Davis terms megacities and even hypercities: 20,000,000+ in population! In the next few years the world will have about ten hypercities with over 20,000,000 people. In the book he poses questions about the ecological sustainability of these slums, the sewerage and waste problems, employment and wage outlook, transportation issues, and obvious social ills caused by the maldistribution of wealth and resources. Davis mentions that these megacities and hypercities do not just consist of one or two "ghettos" but often are made up of six to a dozen or so different "slum districts."
Davis addresses the fact that this astonishing rush to urbanization is a relatively new phenomenon that's taken off at an extraordinary pace over just the past 20 years. Of course Planet of Slums touches on the structural adjustment programs that have been instituted by the global financial rackets and the export/import crop imbalance. He also addresses the fact that this major swing towards urbanization contradicts standard economic theory which essentially states that people will flee the countryside if wages are strong in the urban core. Clearly this is not what has been happening over the past couple decades as Davis demonstrates in his book: wages and employment prospects in the major cities are grim at best with the vast majority of people relying on the informal sector to get by.
The chapter on 'slum ecology' should be required reading for every citizen of the world. Davis, a MacArthur Fellow, does a stupendous job laying out what in the hell's going on in the world today. All the dreadful statistics and anecdotes he brings to the table come with a pessimistic and almost misanthropic tone.
This book is another paradigm shifter from Verso Publishing.
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