Informal housing, be it in the barrio, tugurio, favela, bidonville, gecekondu or kampung, supports the majority of rapidly urbanizing populations in cities of the global South. Yet, many city planners and housing policymakers still regard such urban vernaculars primarily as evidence of backwardness, social malaise, economic involution and planning failure. When lumped together as “slums”, they are seen as a threat to the wider project of sustainable and resilient city development – a problem that must be overcome.
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