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Shantytown (or slum)

Dernière mise à jour le 7 June 2019

The term “shantytown,” which has many local variations, refers to several types of housing and settlement. The French term “bidonville” has been used since the 1950s to designate, in the North African Maghreb, houses that are literally made out of oil drums (“bidons”)—homes, in other words, that are built out of salvaged materials.

The terminology used to refer to this phenomenon is very rich. Distinct words are found in every language. One speaks of “favelas” in Brazil, “kijiji” in Kenya, “barrios” in Venezuela, “campamentos” in Chili, “townships” in South Africa, “precario” in Costa Rico, “bastis” in Calcutta, “cherries” in Madras, in “jhuggis-jhompris” de Delhi, and so on.

Because of its intensity, diversity, and the new forms of organization they have created, shantytowns are central to contemporary urban issues. Shantytowns breed pollution, insecurity, and filth, but they are also wellsprings of cultural creativity, social imagination, and economic and urban inventiveness. The primary function of a shantytown is to be the first stop for people leaving the countryside. For cities, shantytowns function as a kind of airlock, even if for refugee populations themselves they feel more like a net.

The percentage of the population living in shantytowns has declined in recent years.

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