Dear Anthony,

You might be interested in this article by Federico Zanfi on the Italian case:

"The Città Abusiva in Contemporary Southern Italy: Illegal Building and Prospects for Change", Urban Studies, December 2013, vol. 50.

doi: 10.1177/0042098013484542

Looking at examples outside of the "global South" might help avoiding culturalist biases

You might also be interested in this study by Mona Fawaz on Beirut:

"Neoliberal Urbanity and the Right to the City: A View from Beirut's Periphery", Dvt and Change, Volume 40, Issue 5, September 2009, Pages 827–852

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01585.x/full

Best regards.

Dear Anthony,

For the informal urban development in the Global South, I have three best examples for that, namely (i) Cairo in Africa; (ii) Kuala Lumpur in South Asia; and (iii) Brasilia in South America because of different reasons such as the rapid increase of population, economic development, rural-urban migration, and so on. you can look at the following articles:

1. http://www.nzdl.org/gsdlmod?e=d-00000-00---off-0ccgi--00-0----0-10-0---0---0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-about---00-0-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-10-0utfZz-8-00&cl=CL2.2&d=HASHc9c19c642f904c23f02583.7.1>=1

2. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264275102000367

3. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0094119006000878

Kind Regards.

 The inability of governments to provide appropriate infrastructure and public services is at the core of many urban challenges

Major emerging challenges of urbanisation before Governments in developing countries are 1. Urban Sprawl 2. Overcrowding 3. Housing 4. Unemployment 5. Slums and Squatter Settlements 6. Transport 7. Water 8. Sewerage Problems 9. Trash Disposal 10. Urban Crimes 11. Problem of Urban Pollution!

Above all increasing urban population will place enormous stress on the system.

Dear Anthony,

Growth of informal urbanization in the third world countries has stemmed mainly from rural poverty and neglect of the governments in addressing the rural developmental issue adequately.  Informal urbanization/ industrialization sector is able to produce cheaply by exploiting more vulnerable segments of the labor force and by avoiding the labor legislations designed to protect minimum wages, fringe benefits, and proper working conditions of the labourers. Such growth of informal urbanization now poses a serious threat to the governments.

I fully endorse the views of DK Kundu:  India is a typical example for informal urbanization. We started with some minimum discipline of planning our economy: Then, we were told by World Bank and IMF that planning was a mere waste as  experienced by the Soviets and obviously this was misinformation: After half a century of planning we decided to do away with planning; all the infrastructure-energy, electric power, telecommunications, water, railways, highways, waterways, shipping, banking, finance insurance etc etc and everything was to be taken care of by the market guided by the global finance: Even the Central Planning Commission was abandoned or renamed by our recently elected government. Most of the organizations and institutions we had built after national independence for self-reliance and technology development have been abandoned or rendered dysfunctional. And our English speaking intelligentsia was most benefited by this national disaster: They have turned a high-wage island with plenty of opportunities to migrate to more developed economies. Possibly, the people are all waiting for another Gandhi or Nehru for setting right the direction and course of development.

K Vijayachandran.

People are urbanizing. They are doing so as a result of a push from rural labor markets as technological change impacts agriculture and a pull from urban labor markets as manufacturing beckons. They bring rural culture and skills with them. It may be several generations before they are fully acculturated in the urban way of life.

When they arrive at the city, they need housing. The city needs them to have access to clean water and to sewers. In addition, the city needs them to have garbage/trash pickup and disposal. So investment in sewer and water pipes is of primary concern. Garbage trucks come next. Count on the new migrants to build their own shacks . . . the city will never put its imprimatur on housing units that are sufficiently low quality and affordable.

Property rights come next. If the migrants can be displaced with little or no notice, then they will never have incentives to improve their housing. Shacks will remain the rule.

Now think about transportation. How will these new residents get to the points in the city they need to access? Can the city government facilitate this requirement? For example, who may initiate a new bus service? Is this tightly controlled?

Setting priorities is the key to dealing with what may seem to be overwhelming difficulties from mass movements in populations.

Examining the root cause for the informal urbanization have given solutions like strengthening the rural economies and infrastructure to decrease rural urban migration might be one of the solutions.

But cities with their vast opportunities and facilities would always continue to lure people for better living standards. The policy makers would have a consistent problem on hand with new emerging situations.

Informal urbanization or the slums is a third world phenomenon. I do not think it ever existed in developed or OECD countries. I am unable to recall the mention of slums in any of the Western classics, like those of Scot, Dumas, Hardy, Fast atdl. May be that is the case even with Indian or Chinese classics. Slums, I believe, are a legacy from the colonial era, a product of modern imperialism.  

This is a bit old now, but a useful bibliographic resource might be:

Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, (London: Verso, 2006)

I think any urban area in any developing country could provide a valid case. Informal settlements, no mater where they are, have their specific political economy. I worked on such issues in India, and in Fiji.

For recent information have a look at the following pubications

Christian Obermayr (auth.) Sustainable City Management: Informal Settlements in Surakarta, Indonesia [1 ed.] 978-3-319-49417-3, 978-3-319-49418-0 Springer International Publishing 2017, The Urban Book Series

María José Álvarez-Rivadulla (auth.) Squatters and the Politics of Marginality in Uruguay [1 ed.] 978-3-319-54533-2, 978-3-319-54534-9 Palgrave Macmillan 2017, Latin American Political Economy

Shiva Raj Adhikari (auth.) Economics of Urban Externalities: Analysis of Squatter Settlements in Kathmandu and Quito [1 ed.] 978-981-10-0544-2, 978-981-10-0545-9 Springer Singapore 2016, SpringerBriefs in Economics

Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf Transforming Displaced Women in Sudan: Politics and the Body in a Squatter Settlement, 0226002004, 9780226002002, 9780226002019 University Of Chicago Press 2009

Diana Mitlin, David Satterthwaite Empowering Squatter Citizen: Local Government, Civil Society and Urban Poverty Reduction [First Edition] 1844071014, 9781844071012, 1844071006, 9781844071005 Earthscan 2004

Robert Neuwirth Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World 0521379393, 9780415933193 Routledge 2004

Charles L. Choguill (auth.) Urban Innovation Abroad New Communities for Urban Squatters: Lessons from the Plan That Failed in Dhaka, Bangladesh 978-0-306-42545-5, 978-1-4613-1863-7 Springer US 1987

Sahar Attia, Shahdan Shabka, Zeinab Shafik, Asmaa Ibrahim (eds.) Dynamics and Resilience of Informal Areas: International Perspectives [1 ed.] 978-3-319-29946-4, 978-3-319-29948-8 Springer International Publishing 2016

Ray Bromley (Eds.) The Urban Informal Sector. Critical Perspectives on Employment and Housing Policies, 978-0-08-024270-5 Elsevier 1979

Ronald Parker, Alcira Kreimer, Mohan Munasinghe Informal settlements, environmental degradation, and disaster vulnerability: the Turkey case study, 0821333976, 9780821333976 World Bank Publications 1995