This book deals with slums as a specific question and a central focus in urban planning. It radically reverses the official version of the history of world cities as narrated during decades: slums are not at the margin of the contemporary process of urbanization; they are an integral part of it. Taking slums as its central focus and regarding them as symptomatic of the ongoing transformations of the city, the book moves to the very heart of the problem in urban planning. The book presents 16 case studies that form the basis for a theory of the slum and a concrete development manual for the slum. The interdisciplinary approach to analysing slums presented in this volume enables researchers to look at social and economic dimensions as well as at the constructive and spatial aspects of slums. Both at the scientific and the pedagogical level, it allows one to recognize the efforts of the slum’s residents, key players in the past, and present development of their neighborhoods, and to challenge public and private stakeholders on priorities decided in urban planning, and their mismatches when compared to the findings of experts and the demands of users. Whether one is a planner, an architect, a developer or simply an inhabitant of an emerging city, the presence of slums in one’s environment – at the same time central and nonetheless incongruous – makes a person ask questions. Today, it is out of the question to be satisfied with the assumption of the marginality of slums, or of the incongruous nature of their existence. Slums are now fully part of the urban landscape, contributing to the identity and the urbanism of cities and their stakeholders.
Jean-Claude Bolay was appointed Director of Cooperation at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2001 and has headed what recently became the Cooperation & Development Center (CODEV) since 2005. A sociologist by training, he specialized in urban issues in Latin America, Asia and West Africa. He prepared his PhD in Political Sciences at El Colegio de Mexico, then at UC Berkeley, USA. Before joining EPFL in 1989, he worked for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) both in Switzerland and in Cameroon. He has carried out many international research projects in Vietnam and Latin American countries in particular, looking at social practices in urban societies, sustainable urban development and poverty reduction in developing countries. He was a scientific advisor and evaluator for the Swiss State Secretariat for Education and Research, the Belgian Universities’ Commission for Development and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among other institutions. At EPFL, he has directed postgraduate courses on development in Africa and India. In parallel to his position as Director of CODEV, he was appointed Adjunct Professor in 2005 in the Laboratory of Urban Sociology of the Natural, Architectural and Built Environment School.
Jérôme Chenal is a doctor of science (Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne - EPFL). After studying architecture at the EPFL, he worked as an urban planner for the Urbaplan agency, which specializes in urban development in Africa. He then joined the EPFL’s Laboratory of Urban Sociology (LaSUR), where he wrote his thesis. He was a visiting researcher at University College London’s (UCL) Development Planning Unit (DPU) for two years starting in 2010, before returning to the EPFL’s School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC), where he currently works. His current researches concern the link
between spatial transformations and social mutations, at the crossroad of architecture and lifestyles, urban planning and street-level practices. His empirical investigations take place in metropolis of Africa and Asia, where he develops news methodological instruments for urban research using especially photography.
Yves Pedrazzini is a leading authority on contemporary urban issues. He works as a senior scientist at the Laboratory of Urban Sociology (LASUR) and as a lecturer in the Section of Architecture at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland. As a trained sociologist and anthropologist, Yves Pedrazzini leads research projects on urban violence, security and insecurity, gangs and bandits, public spaces and gated communities, urban culture, sports and art, in contexts as far afield as Colombia, Ethiopia, France, Portugal and Venezuela. His recent research focuses on the slum as a global icon, and on outsiders and urban outcasts as key figures of urbanity.
