Megacities
Subtitle: the politics of urban exclusion and violence in the global south
By: edited by Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt
Publisher: Zed Books
Published: 2009
Place of publication: London; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 200
ISBN-13: 9781848132962; 9781848132955; 9781848134904
Subjects: Urban poor; Congresses; Social Marginality; Urban violence; Cities and towns; Growth; Urbanization; Social conditions
Description: "The twenty-first century is set to be the stage for the massive urbanization of the world's population. Particularly, the so-called 'megacities' around the world are rapidly becoming the scene for deprivation and exclusion, especially in what has come to be called the 'global south'. In such large-scale yet concentrated social environments, a complex set of relationships links poverty and exclusion to urban politics, power relations and public policy. Violent actors look for power in strategies that seek access to urban politics and policy-making. The urban poor are confronted with the challenge of charting pathways in their 'encounters with violence'. Local politicians, administrators, grass roots leaders and NGO officials are faced with the puzzle of how to restore effective non-violent institutions, legitimate governance and citizen security. Featuring case studies from across the globe, Megacities examines recent world-wide trends in poverty and social exclusion, urban violence and politics, and links these to the challenges faced by policy-makers and practitioners."--Publisher description.
Notes: "The chapters of this book were originally presented as draft papers at the conference 'The politics of urban poverty, exclusion and violence: comparative analysis and policy insights,' organized in The Hague on 27 and 28 September 2007"--P. vii.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 178-194) and index.
Table of contents: title: The rise of megacities and the urbanization of informality, exclusion and violence / Dirk Kruijt and Kees Koonings; title: From popular movements to drug gangs to militias : an anatomy of violence in Rio de Janeiro / Robert Gay; title: Megacity's violence and its consequences in Rio de Janeiro / Janice Perlman; title: Coping with urban violence : state and community responses to crime and insecurity in Guayaquil, Ecuador / Caroline Moser; title: Middle Eastern megacities : social exclusion, popular movements and the quiet encroachment of the urban poor / Asef Bayat; title: Urban governance and the paradox of conflict / Jo Beall; title: Shoot the citizen, save the customer : participatory budgeting and bare citizenship in Porto Alegre, Brazil / Sérgio Baierle; title: Crisis of the state, violence in the city / Mariano Aguirre; title: Urban exclusion and the (false) assumptions of spatial policy reform in South Africa / Susan Parnell and Owen Crankshaw; title: Conclusions : governing exclusion and violence in megacities / Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt.