Framing ‘slums’: global policy discourses and urban inequalities

Abstract

Slums and informal settlements have long been a policy concern, particularly in post-independence cities of the global South. Although national and local governments devise public policy seeking to address these habitations, these policy initiatives occur in conversation with the often far less visible global policy discourses of international urban development actors. Positing their ideational influence, this study analyses how global discourses from key multilateral agencies and donors have framed the problem of slums and informal settlements over time, to uncover assumptions and biases that ideationally, if indirectly, contribute to urban inequality, marginalization and socio-spatial othering in the city.