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A full list of STWR's publications as well as related news, articles and blogs can be found below. You can filter the content using the 'category' or 'topics' links in the menu on the left. 

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - introduction

Report / 8th December 2010

For anyone who takes an interest in the problem of slums, a few basic facts will soon become clear. Firstly, the locus of global poverty is moving from rural areas to the cities, and more than half the world population now lives in urban areas for the first time in human history. Secondly...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - a summary

Report / 8th December 2010

It is easy to believe that urban slums are a consequence of too many people living in cities, or too many poor people migrating from rural to urban areas for governments to contend with the strain on housing. But the real problem is rooted in...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - myth 1: there are too many people

Report / 8th December 2010

Since Thomas Malthus first warned of an impending population explosion in 1798, the idea that there are too many people in the world for everyone to share in the earth’s bounty is one of the most persistent and widespread myths in popular thinking on development...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - myth 2: the poor are to blame

Report / 8th December 2010

The deep-seated myth that the poor are to blame for their conditions of poverty echoes back to the earliest days of industrialisation in Western Europe. With a perverse inversion of cause and effect, the prevalence of extreme urban poverty and slum settlements is blamed...

The seven myths of ‘slums’ - myth 3: slums are places of crime, violence and social degradation

Report / 8th December 2010

A corollary of the myth that the poor are to blame for their poverty is the widespread prejudice against slums as places of social degradation and despair, and against slum residents as perpetrators of violence and crime...