Editing Slum (section)

===Urbanization===
[[File:Rocinha Favela Brazil Slums.jpg|thumb|A slum in [[Rio de Janeiro]], Brazil. Rocinha favela is next to skyscrapers and wealthier parts of the city, a location that provides jobs and easy commute to those who live in the slums.]]
The formation of slums is closely linked to [[urbanization]].<ref name="Davis">{{cite book |last=Davis |first=Mike |title=Planet of Slums |year=2006 |publisher=Verso}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2024}} In 2008, more than 50% of the world's population lived in urban areas. In China, for example, it is estimated that the population living in urban areas will increase by 10% within a decade according to its current rates of urbanization.<ref>{{cite book |title=State of the world population 2007: unleashing the potential of urban growth |year=2007 |publisher=United Nations Population Fund |location=New York}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2024}} The UN-Habitat reports that 43% of urban population in [[developing countries]] and 78% of those in the least developed countries are slum dwellers.<ref name="grhs2003" />

Some scholars suggest that urbanization creates slums because local governments are unable to manage urbanization, and [[migrant workers]] without an affordable place to live in, dwell in slums.<ref name="Hammel 1964 346–358">{{cite journal |last=Hammel |first=Eugene A. |title=Some characteristics of rural village and urban slum populations on the coast of Peru |journal=Southwestern Journal of Anthropology |volume=20 |issue=4 |year=1964 |pages=346–358 |doi=10.1086/soutjanth.20.4.3629175 |s2cid=130682432}}</ref> Rapid urbanization drives economic growth and causes people to seek working and investment opportunities in urban areas.<ref name="Burke">{{cite journal |last=Patel |first=Ronak B. |author2=Thomas F. Burke |title=Urbanization—an emerging humanitarian disaster|journal=New England Journal of Medicine |year=2009 |volume=361 |issue=8 |pages=741–743 |doi=10.1056/nejmp0810878 |pmid=19692687 |s2cid=19545185 |doi-access=free}}</ref><ref name="Bolay">{{cite journal |last=Bolay |first=Jean-Claude |title=Slums and urban development: questions on society and globalisation |journal=The European Journal of Development Research |year=2006 |volume=18 |issue=2 |pages=284–298 |doi=10.1080/09578810600709492 |citeseerx=10.1.1.464.2718 |s2cid=24793439}}</ref> However, as evidenced by poor urban [[infrastructure]] and insufficient [[housing]], the local [[governments]] sometimes are unable to manage this transition.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Firdaus |first=Ghuncha |title=Urbanization, emerging slums and increasing health problems: a challenge before the nation: an empirical study with reference to state of uttar pradesh in India |journal=Journal of Environmental Research and Management |year=2012 |volume=3 |issue=9 |pages=146–152}}</ref><ref name="Clonts">{{cite journal |last=Clonts |first=Howard A. |title=Influence of urbanization on land values at the urban periphery |journal=Land Economics |year=1970 |volume=46 |issue=4 |pages=489–497 |doi=10.2307/3145522 |jstor=3145522}}</ref> This incapacity can be attributed to insufficient funds and inexperience to handle and organize problems brought by migration and urbanization.<ref name="Bolay" /> In some cases, local governments ignore the flux of immigrants during the process of urbanization.<ref name="Burke" /> Such examples can be found in many [[List of sovereign states and dependent territories in Africa|African]] countries. In the early 1950s, many African governments believed that slums would finally disappear with economic growth in urban areas. They neglected rapidly spreading slums due to increased rural-urban migration caused by urbanization.<ref>{{cite book |title=UN-Habitat (2003b) The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements |year=2003 |publisher=UN-Habitat |location=Earthscan, London}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2024}} Some governments, moreover, mapped the land where slums occupied as undeveloped land.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Wekwete |first=K. H |title=Urban management: The recent experience, in Rakodi, C. |journal=The Urban Challenge in Africa |year=2001}}</ref>

Another type of urbanization does not involve economic growth but [[economic stagnation]] or low growth, mainly contributing to slum growth in [[Sub-Saharan Africa]] and parts of [[Asia]]. This type of urbanization involves a high rate of [[unemployment]], insufficient financial resources and inconsistent [[urban planning]] policy.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cheru |first=F |title=Globalization and uneven development in Africa: The limits to effective urban governance in the provision of basic services |year=2005 |publisher=UCLA Globalization Research Center-Africa}}</ref>{{page needed|date=October 2024}} In these areas, an increase of 1% in urban population will result in an increase of 1.84% in slum prevalence.<ref name="barimslum" />

Urbanization might also force some people to live in slums when it influences [[land use]] by transforming agricultural land into urban areas and increases land value. During the process of urbanization, some agricultural land is used for additional urban activities. More investment will come into these areas, which increases the land value.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Rancich |first=Michael T. |title=Land value changes in an area undergoing urbanization |journal=Land Economics |year=1970 |volume=46 |issue=1 |pages=32–40 |doi=10.2307/3145421 |jstor=3145421}}</ref> Before some land is completely urbanized, there is a period when the land can be used for neither urban activities nor agriculture. The income from the land will decline, which decreases the people's incomes in that area. The gap between people's low income and the high land price forces some people to look for and construct cheap [[informal settlements]], which are known as slums in urban areas.<ref name="Clonts" /> The transformation of agricultural land also provides [[surplus labour]], as peasants have to seek jobs in urban areas as rural-urban [[migrant workers]].<ref name="Hammel 1964 346–358" />

Many slums are part of [[economies of agglomeration]] in which there is an emergence of [[economies of scale]] at the firm level, transport costs and the mobility of the industrial labour force.<ref name="Alonso" /> The increase in returns of scale will mean that the production of each good will take place in a single location.<ref name="Alonso">{{cite journal |last1=Alonso-Villar |first1=Olga |title=Large Metropolises in the Third World: An Explanation. |journal=Urban Studies |date=2001 |volume=38 |issue=8 |page=1368 |doi=10.1080/00420980120061070 |bibcode=2001UrbSt..38.1359A |s2cid=153400618}}</ref> And even though an agglomerated economy benefits these cities by bringing in specialization and multiple competing suppliers, the conditions of slums continue to lag behind in terms of quality and adequate housing. Alonso-Villar argues that the existence of transport costs implies that the best locations for a firm will be those with easy access to markets, and the best locations for workers, those with easy access to goods. The concentration is the result of a self-reinforcing process of agglomeration.<ref name="Alonso" /> Concentration is a common trend of the distribution of population. Urban growth is dramatically intense in the less developed countries, where a large number of huge cities have started to appear; which means high poverty rates, crime, pollution and congestion.<ref name="Alonso" />