68 Economic dimensions and socio-cultural patterns
protect land around a region. Nevertheless, thinking about, working together,
and planning an urban region is a challenge because social linkages are mainly
at the scale of smaller units within the region.Squatter settlements and the poor
In cities, social interactions within and among communities reflect the
overall concentration of people plus the spatial arrangement of neighborhoods
and other land uses (Fainstein and Campbell1996,Bullardet al.2000,Macionis
and Parillo2001,Hall2002,Ozawa2004). As indicated above, the economic and
environmental implications of poverty are far-reaching, so we start with certain
social dimensions of low-income (or slum) communities (Jacobs1992,Main and
Williams1994,Vigier1997,Hall2002,State of the World’s Cities2006).
First it should be emphasized that stable poor communities are probably
present in all cities. A sense of place is strong. Neighbors not only protect
their place against internal degradation, but also against outside threats. Threats
range from encroachment by politically more-powerful wealthy or middle-class
communities to environmental justice issues such as building a noisy highway
or a polluting factory nearby. Social linkages in such a community are kept
vibrant and strong.
Much more challenging are thesquatter settlements,shantytowns, informal
housing, and favelas born of unrelated immigrants from afar (Perlman 1976 ,
Main and Williams1994). Normally the sites are the environmentally worst in
thearea, such as steep mountain slopes (e.g., Caracas, Rio de Janeiro), nearby
hillslopes (Tegucigalpa), oft-flooded river floodplains (Bangkok), around railways
and highways, and by polluted streams and drainage ditches where food can be
grown. Greenspaces and water bodies are combed for food and other resources
(Figure3.2). Most informal communities are located close to potential jobs, such
as by factories or to help serve nearby wealthy neighborhoods (Sao Paolo). Tem-
porary squatter settlements also often appear just inside the edge of the metro
area. Later, as land prices rise, they are replaced, while new squatters colonize
thenow-further-out metro area edge. Few informal communities appear much
beyond the metropolitan area.
Squatter settlements are widely plagued by poor water supply, no sewage
treatment, no public transport, few public-health services, crime, little policing,
undependable electricity, few jobs, uneven food supply, makeshift shelter, and
avery high ground-floor population density. Yet in the face of adversity, people,
even from far unrelated rural areas, may create vibrant communities. Probably
all urbanists have seen this, but let me illustrate with my story.
One glorious day, an ecologist in a motorboat took a colleague and me
through the mangrove-swamp islets in the mouth of a river in Rio de Janeiro. We