MMW 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Exponential Growth, Anthropocene, Party System
12 Jun 2018
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Outline Lecture Twenty-six—The Demographic and Ecological Perils
I) Urban Poverty and the Demographic Crisis
a) Urban Shift
i) Exponential growth in human population
Population exploding at exponential rate
ii) Of the 7 billion, over half now live and work in or around cities
b) Urban and Poor
i) UN Human Settlement Programme’s The Challenge of Slums
More updates on situation of slums
½ of world’s pop is urban and 1/3 live in slums (1 billion ppl) and over half are
children
by 2030, as many as 2 billion ppl will live in slum dwellings
(1) Trends in urban poverty
ii) Health and environment hazards
(1) Built on precarious foundations
Run down
Very dangerous
(2) Very little public infrastructure
In lands that no one else wants
Where no developer wants to develop
Flooding
Casualties
(a) Lack of sufficient expressways and public transportation
Amost non existent as a slum dweller
they fend for themselves
(b) Unreliable utilities, poor sanitation and lack of sewage systems
4.5 bathrooms in typical suburban house in America
immense disparity between how we live and how rest of the world lives
(3) How can anyone justify such gross disparities in how we live?
iii) Not Pull but Push
(1) What accounts for this persistent urban growth?
Represent dumping ground for surplus population
Keep them around bc you can take advantage of them politically
Make promises to them, bribe them
Politicians, landlords, urban planners—will take advantage of them if they need to
(a) UN study pointed to the adverse impact of 1980s SAPs
(b) Urban squatters filled in as “reserve labor force”
(2) Why would local and national politicians tolerate slums
(a) Katherine Boo’s Behind the Beautiful Forevers
Slum area in Mumbai
Poignant picture of what slum existence entails
(b) District 9
Movie that depicts slums
c) Slums as “Volcanoes Waiting to Erupt”?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Outline lecture twenty-six the demographic and ecological perils: urban poverty and the demographic crisis, urban shift, exponential growth in human population. Population exploding at exponential rate: of the 7 billion, over half now live and work in or around cities, urban and poor, un human settlement programme"s the challenge of slums. Casualties (a) lack of sufficient expressways and public transportation. Amost non existent as a slum dweller they fend for themselves (b) unreliable utilities, poor sanitation and lack of sewage systems. Keep them around bc you can take advantage of them politically. Poignant picture of what slum existence entails (b) district 9. Welfare programs taken away: religious fundamentalism as proxy for the state. Religion goes in for 2 reasons: for altruistic and philanthropic reasons or for spreading radical ideology. Slums are where they recruit the most (bc the ppl in slums are most desparate) (1) provide food, clinics, medicine, even education.
