It is common knowledge that sub-Saharan Africa is urbanising faster than anywhere else in the world ... but what if we're wrong?! This misconception, based on simplistic projections from very old data, is contradicted by recent censuses, which suggests we need to rethink our understanding of urban poverty across the continent.
A hundred-year-old street market in Bangalore was demolished in the dead of night last month. How much history and local colour is lost by enforcing the law now after so many years?
There is much happiness and much misery amongst the urban poor, as these portraits of three households in Manila testify. The point is not to draw lines between them, but to accept that poverty has several gradations, all of which require assistance.
While economic development policies might contradict and undermine the needs of the urban poor, slums like Dharavi may incubate industries that can export to the world and should be embraced.
While Delhi turns its back on ragpickers by contracting out its solid waste management, Pune has successfully integrated its ragpickers into a formal workforce.
Mumbai is looking to involve the private sector to manage the tons of solid waste it generates every day, but it must be done without marginalising the informal 'ragpickers' who do this work already.
While the Thai army secure the final outposts of the Red Shirt protesters, residents and informal workers who relied on the businesses and trade of the Ratchaprasong district must now struggle to rebuild their livelihoods amidst the burnt-out buildings and shopping malls.
The proportion of Kenyans living in urban settlements seemingly reduced from 34% of the total population in 2001 to 22% in 2010. Was it really possible that such a huge number of people had left Kenyan towns for rural areas in the first decade of the 21st century?
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
