Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World

Book Description

In the middle of the night they quickly build houses and seize land before the police destroy their fragile homes. They're squatters--families that risk the wrath of governments and property owners by building dwellings on land they don't own--and they represent one out of every ten people on the planet.

Investigative journalist Robert Neuwirth lived among squatter communities from Rio to Bombay to Nairobi to Istanbul to give us an impassioned, inside view of squatter life and a glimpse into the urban future. He met people in Nairobi who built homes with their bare hands, Turkish families who plot land invasions, and children in Rio whose parents justify outfoxing the authorities as the only path to a better life. And he shows us that in cities like Rio, squatter settlements have become decent places to live for formerly landless people. Tracing the notion of private property from the enclosure movement in Europe to the settlement of the U.S., Neuwirth shows how squatting rights may actually be seen asmore "natural" than the current laws practiced in the U.S.

In almost every country of the developing world, the most active builders are squatters, creating complex local economies with high rises, shopping strips, banks, and self-government. As they invent new social structures, Neuwirth argues, squatters are at the forefront of the worldwide movement to develop new visions of what constitutes property and community.

Customer Reviews:

Disappointing, Of Passing Utility.......2006-10-04

This book was very disappointing. Although at 54 I am getting to the point where I need granny glasses to read those books where the print is too fine, this book goes way in excess to the other side: large print and triple spacing. This book is a 60 page article inflated to 300 pages.

The author has endured privation and offers many useful observations in the book, which makes it one of passing utility, but I put book down feeling somewhat dismayed as well as disappointed. Unlike C. K. Prahalad's "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid," which made the very compelling case for taking the five billion poor's four trillion a year economic needs much more seriously, this book left me with absolutely no sense of "what is to be done."

This is a travelogue, not a policy book. Worth reading, but it could have been so much more than I am obliged to give it my lowest rating for any book that makes my reading list--three stars.

Myths are dispelled and realities outlined.......2006-09-24

SHADOW CITIES: A BILLION SQUATTERS, A NEW URBAN WORLD confronts the issue of nations of squatters. Cities are home to a billion such squatters and that number is projected to double in a generation, so any college-level student of urban planning needs to understand the experiences, issues and results herein. Reporter Robert Neuwirth spent two years living in squatter neighborhoods on four continents, so his exploration comes not just from an outsider's perspective, but from one who has lived amongst them. Myths are dispelled and realities outlined in a hard-hitting consideration of facts and social issues.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Excellent read.......2006-08-12

This is one of the best books I have read in a while. The author - Robert Neuwirth - lived in four slum areas in or near major cities in the third world and then reported what he found. Neuwirth seems to have a unique knack for putting threads of stories together in a way that produces a compelling and fascinating tale. He reports bits and pieces of information received from local squatters, landlords, politicians, social activists, etc., and put together a story that seems so complete that you feel that you have the "feel" of life in these places.

The book does have weaknesses. His historical accounts of slums strike the reader as piecemeal and thrown together. The portions of the book which deal with various proposed solutions fail to even discuss the significance of overpopulation in the etiology of slum development.

But I gave the book four stars nonetheless. Neuwirth's first hand account of slum life in the modern world is almost spellbinding. Contrary to what one would expect, the book is not just an endless recitation of privation and poverty. The "slums" that he describes contain tales of triumph as well as oppression; ingenuity as well as exploitation. The book celebrates the human spirit as well as it pointing out its sins.

Some of things reported in the book will surprise. For instance, the Brazilian "slum" of Rocinha is so vibrantly alive, one almost feels envious of those who reside there. Similarly, the tenacity of slum-dwellers in confronting adversity is often breathtaking. Then again, on the other hand, the brutal exploitation of the poor by people only slightly more advantaged is a disheartening commentary on the human race.

Overall, this is quite a tale. Robert Neuwirth's book is a great read and well worth the time and the price.

Required Reading.......2006-04-25

This is a fine piece of honest, humanitarian reporting. Neuwirth should be admired for living in each of the cities he profiles. He takes a wide view, examining the complicated squatter problem from social, political, philosophical, historical, and personal narrative angles. This book debunks the stereotype of squatters as criminals and illuminates white-collar crime accross the board. The conclusion begins to grapple with issues of property rights, possession, dead capital, and ownership. Overall, the book amazingly maintains a positive attitude toward an increasingly pressing global phenomenon.

A Haphazard Letdown.......2006-04-22

This rather haphazard book functions well as a sociological portrait of four squatter cities as well as a spirited PR piece for the people living there, but fails on other fronts. The best parts are the first four chapters, which outline Neuwirth's field work in the shantytowns of Rio, Nairobi, Mumbai, and Istanbul. This consisted of living in situ for several months and talking to as many people as possible in order to get the pulse of a place. These 150 pages are fairly engaging insider views of places few of us are likely to venture, and are worth reading as a kind of non-traditional travelogue.

The book really loses its way after this. There is a meandering chapter about urban squatting throughout time, including snippets on ancient Rome, Medieval Europe, Victorian London, '20s Shanghai, and various cities in the U.S. This is followed by another meandering chapter about squatters in New York over the last 150 years. Both of these contains some interesting stories and factoids, but fail to cohere into anything more than that. Next is a brief, rather snide chapter skewering the efforts of the NGO Habitat, which takes the rather predictable line that well-intentioned aid from outsiders accomplishes nothing. Then a chapter addressing crime in the four communities he lived in -- why this needs to be broken out into it's own chapter is unclear. Next is a rather muddled chapter on the concept of "property" and the various theoretical tugs-of-war surrounding it, which feels quite like the obligatory "theory" chapter of a Master's thesis.

A rather significant flaw running through the book is that Neuwirth writes as if his readers all hold some kind of ridiculous stereotype about who lives in shantytowns. Few readers are likely to believe that millions of shantytown-dwellers around the world are simply lazy and/or criminal -- yet the writing is rather shrilly pitched as if the reader was some kind of reactionary nincompoop. His profiles in courage of ingenious hard-working and optimistic poor (and a few who aren't so poor) shantytowners are welcome, but get rather repetitive. Furthermore, while these profiles are certainly heart-warming, they are ultimately little more than anecdotal data. They are also ironically similar to the sustaining American capitalist myths of "rugged individualism" and "pulling yourself up by your bootstraps." However, the reality is that the vast majority of the people living in the communities he passed through are going to be born poor, live poor, and die poor -- regardless of how hard they work or how ingenious they are.

The book's larger aims fail because Neuwirth tries to uncouple housing issues from broader issues of poverty when the reality is that the one is embedded deeply in the other. Shantytowns have exploded around the world thanks to rural-to-urban migration patterns driven by global capitalism. In his book The Mystery of Capital, Hernan de Soto addresses this larger problem quite specifically and offers a possible way forward (within a traditional capitalism framework). Unfortunately, Neuwirth seems to have not quite grasped de Soto's ideas, and instead offers only sneering potshots at only portions of them. This problem with his dubious analysis is that by singling out specific elements of de Soto's proposal (notably property titles) from his larger framework (which includes addressing corruption, elitism, stagnant bureaucracies and a great many other things), the critique has no meaning. It's especially disappointing because de Soto and Neuwirth are both on the side of squatters, and both want better lives for them. One of the underlying themes of de Soto's book is that when citizens create facts on the ground, their government should change its methods to accommodate them, not isolate them.

Ultimately, this is a rather disappointing work with some genuine bright spots. It's great that Neuwirth went and spent a year of his life in these communities, and he's good at capturing the flavor of them. It's just a shame that his broader analysis is so flighty. There is an running underlying tension whereby Neuwirth provides case after case of how squatters get taken advantage of because they have no legal protections, and yet he refuses to admit that valid, enforceable property titles are part of the solution to exactly these inequities. In any event, worth a quick read by those with a deep interest in the subject, but on the whole it's a letdown.

Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation

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A lucid book on how we've "created" nature - and outlaws
An intriguing look at our national parks

Crimes against Nature: Squatters, Poachers, Thieves, and the Hidden History of American Conservation
Karl Jacoby
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0520239091

Book Description

Crimes against Nature reveals the hidden history behind three of the nation's first parklands: the Adirondacks, Yellowstone, and the Grand Canyon. Focusing on conservation's impact on local inhabitants, Karl Jacoby traces the effect of criminalizing such traditional practices as hunting, fishing, foraging, and timber cutting in the newly created parks. Jacoby reassesses the nature of these "crimes" and provides a rich portrait of rural people and their relationship with the natural world in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Customer Reviews:

A lucid book on how we've "created" nature - and outlaws.......2002-02-14

Crimes Against Nature is written by one of America's foremost new thinkers on the environment. Karl Jacoby's book has all the beauty and intellectual force his lectures are famous for.

This book gives a startlingly new perspective on just how we've created our national parks. In doing so, he makes us rethink what we consider our proudest achievements - and at what cost we've achieved them. Five stars.

An intriguing look at our national parks.......2001-02-14

"Conservation" seems like a completely positive word--e.g., we want to preserve nature for future generations. I remember how in awe I was when I saw the Grand Canyon for the first time.

But after reading Jacoby's book, I feel like I have a whole new perspective. Not that I don't agree that protecting the environment shouldn't be a high priority--for example, I think the idea of drilling into the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil when we have all these people driving thes gas-guzzling SUVs is the height of idiocy. But this book shows that there were some human costs to creating the park--the Indians and poor white people who already lived on the land that became parks. I didn't realize that they had the U.S. army patrolling and occupying the Grand Canyon to keep people out--although I do remember thinking that the Forest rangers' uniforms (and Smoky the Bear!) were very militaristic.

Book Description

Shootback puts basic point-and-shoot cameras into the hands of 32 teenage boys and girls from Mathare, Nairobi, one of Africa's largest slums. This book documents the extraordinary results: provocative, compelling images and hand-written words which reveal unexpected sides of these teenager's lives. The photographs speak eloquently of friends, family life, football fever and the harsh realities of everyday life in the slums with hope, an infectious humor and a disarming sense of honesty which shakes us into new perspectives on the developing world. Edited by documentary photographer Lana Wong and published with the support of the Ford Foundation, this visceral photographic collage challenges traditional tourist images of Africa and uses photography as a truly democratic art.

Customer Reviews:

SureShot.......2003-04-11

Lana Wong has done a great job of putting together a remarkable collection of some of the best adolescent photography the world has seen. Not only are the photos an accurate portrayal of the desperate lives thesechildren and thier families lead, but they are full of expression. The MYSA Shootback project has helped these children find talemts they never expected they had, or never had the opportuniy to nurture. Lana Wong has done a beautiful thing for so many people, if you are interested in africa and photography, this book is a must.

SureShot.......2003-04-11

good pictures, not the same as going there.......2000-07-07

This book is a great collection of pictures from Mathare, but it is no replacement for going there. I just returned from spending the last five weeks in Mathare and neighboring Eastleigh, where some of the worst poverty in the world exists. The book portrays graphic images and does a wonderful job of trying to capture the stark reality of the plight of these kids.

As someone who has sat with the street children in their bases, the book does as good of a job as you can get with pictures alone, but it is simply no substitute for being there.

Incredible sana.......2000-05-29

Shootback is an awesome book. I spent the last 5 months in Kenya going to school and it is the only way that one can truely understand the horrors of the slums of a third world country. These kids who live there are being given an oppertunity that they never would have gotten otherwise. They get the chance to share with the world and reach people who might be able to make a difference for them. This is no ordinary touristy book about the incredible country of Kenya, this shows the way that many of it's people live. Shootback shares the inside of the slums like nothing else. A normal tourist couldn't go there, let alone bring a camera there. I want to say thanks to the author and creator of the Shootback ministry. You help people see the real side of Kenya.

Shootback: candid, challenging and inspiring.......2000-03-23

Having myself written academically on Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), the organization out of which this initiative originated, I am thrilled that Shootback: Photos by Kids from the Nairobi Slums has appeared on the North American website of amazon.com. This is an absorbing and thought-provoking book that challenges the way we (North Americans) view the world. A lot of hard work has gone into this labor of love by Lana Wong and her brave band of photographers, and it shows.

Customer Reviews:

Eager to read more.........2006-03-06

I particularly liked the mix of personal encounter, eye-witness description and factual research. We're reading this book in our JustFaith program;it offered rich ground for discussion without handing us conclusions.The local speaker we invited on the topic of international poverty was from Mexico City. He was wondering if this book is available in Spanish. (Anyone know?)

The Squatter and the Don (Modern Library Classics)

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The Squatter and the Don (Modern Library Classics)
Maria Amparo Ruiz De Burton
Manufacturer: Modern Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0812972899
Release Date: 2004-11-09

Book Description

“The Squatter and the Don, like its author, has come out a survivor,” notes Ana Castillo in her Introduction. “The fact that it has resurfaced after more than a century from its original publication is a testimony to its worthiness.” Inviting comparison to Uncle Tom’s Cabin, María Amparo Ruiz de Burton’s illuminating political novel is also an engaging historical romance. Set in San Diego shortly after the United States’ annexation of California and written from the point of view of a native Californio, the story centers on two families: the Alamars of the landed Mexican gentry, and the Darrells, transplanted New Englanders–and their tumultuous struggles over property, social status, and personal integrity.

This Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the first edition of 1885.

Ana Castillo is a poet, essayist, and novelist whose works include the recent poetry collection I Ask the Impossible and the novel Peel My Love Like an Onion. She lives in Chicago and teaches at DePaul University.

Unlawful Occupation: Informal Settlements And Urban Policy In South Africa And Brazil

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Unlawful Occupation: Informal Settlements And Urban Policy In South Africa And Brazil
Marie Huchzermeyer
Manufacturer: Africa World Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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Product Description

In the past few years, the issue of land invasions and the appropriateness of governmental responses to landlessness have often been at the forefront of international attention in the Southern African region. The Zimbabwe land crisis and concerns about its sub-continental impacts have taken center stage. In South Africa, local and international human rights awareness has risen following the Grootboom judgment. This book confronts the highly charged questions of exclusion and unlawful occupation and deals rigorously with the appropriateness of informal settlement responses in South Africa. It does so through a comparison with Brazil. The international and comparative aspects of the book are particularly noteworthy. Part one provides an international perspective on informal settlement intervention in Brazil and South Africa. It tracks the development of influential international positions on informal settlement intervention and argues that the South African paradigm is distorted, neither Marxist nor purely liberal. Part two explores the evolution of informal settlement in South Africa and Brazil from a socio-political perspective. This comparison brings into sharp relief the individualized, standardized intervention in South Africa and the more responsive informal settlement intervention approach in Brazil, especially in those municipalities with strong Workers Party mandates. The Brazilian experience presented in this book makes a compelling and provocative case for exploring an approach in South Africa that is more responsive and progressive, a people-managed process with political dimensions. It fundamentally calls into question the validity of market-driven arguments that support the current framework and challenges its people-centered rhetoric. This book is itself likely to stir up policy debate on the informal settlement intervention question, the absence of which it identifies as a fundamental constraint to challenging the current approach. It makes an eloquent and compelling case for a paradigm shift.

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Not His Best by a Long Shot
On the edge of your seat thriller
Enjoyable,intense read
not best
A Creepy Read!

The Manhattan Hunt Club: A Novel
John Saul
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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ASIN: 0345490649
Release Date: 2006-03-28

Book Description

The acknowledged master of psychological suspense and heart-stopping terror, New York Times bestselling author John Saul now invites you to descend to chilling new depths of darkness--and discover a secret, savage world that exists beneath our very feet.

The promising future of New York City college student Jeff Converse has suddenly been shattered by a nightmarish turn of events. Falsely convicted of a brutal crime, Jeff sees his life vanishing before his eyes. But someone has other plans for Jeff, in a far deadlier place than any penitentiary. He finds himself beneath the teeming streets of Manhattan, in a hidden landscape of twisting tunnels and forgotten subterranean chambers. Here, an invisible population of the homeless, the desperate, and the mad has carved out its own shadow society.

But they are not alone. The pitch-dark tunnels and abandoned subway stations are haunted by the unmistakable sounds of predators in search of game. Someone has made this forsaken civilization beneath the city a private killing ground . . . and the hunt is on.

Trapped in a treacherous underground maze, cut off at every turn by ragged gangs of sinister "gamekeepers," and stalked relentlessly by unseen hunters, Jeff faces overwhelming odds in the race to reach salvation and elude capture. With no weapon but his wits, and an unimaginable threat lurking around every dark corner, Jeff must somehow move heaven and earth to escape from a living hell.

The Manhattan Hunt Club is the most thrilling and suspenseful novel yet from the ingenious mind of John Saul.

From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews:

Not His Best by a Long Shot.......2007-10-03

I like some of John Saul's work, but I thought THE MANHATTAN HUNT CLUB was a pretty mediocre effort.

The concept of this novel (people living in the tunnels underneath the New York Subway) is potentially interesting, but Saul invests little effort in creating believable characters or a realistic plot. In particular, I found the identity of the villains to be ridiculous. The overall silliness of this book made it hard for me to enjoy.

In short, THE MANHATTAN HUNT CLUB is pretty lackluster. My advice is to try some of Saul's better known work, such as SUFFER THE CHILDREN or THE GOD PROJECT. Those novels are more exciting, and have much stronger plots and characters.

On the edge of your seat thriller.......2007-09-03

This book was absolutely unreal.. I read few books cover to cover without putting them down at least once - but this book I could not put down. Great book by Saul, I was totally into the book from the beginning. Great novel!

Enjoyable,intense read.......2007-06-27

This is one of Sauls best.Of coarse he is one of my favorite writers.This starts of with and bang and kept me turning the pages to the very end.Great characters as well

not best.......2007-01-31

I bought this book with more expectations to enjoy another triller of John Saul, but i was a bit... very... smth between very and a bit disappointed.

This book is about guy is catacombs and that is followed by men who like to shoot people for fun. The story is a bit boring and predictable. And scenario is too easy to follow.

If i would not know who is author i would never guess that it's Saul. Well, there is of cause some interesting moment in book, that tense you a bit and not let you to fall asleep. But anyway it's not one of that books that you can read on one breath.

A Creepy Read!.......2006-06-16

Saul's suspenseful thriller The Manhattan Hunt Club starts off with a race to the death and ends with a race for survival. This book will leave you completely and utterly breathless and is one I would never read on the subways of New York.

Jeff Converse is sent to prison--for a crime he didn't commit. But instead of the confines and safety of concrete prison walls, he is given his freedom. If one can call it that. Jeff has become the prey in a deadly game, hunted by people with wealth, power and a sadistic lust for control. And what better control can one have than that over another human being's fate? `Should he live or die?'

Saul paints a terrifyingly hellish canvas of winding subway tunnels and a believable secret subterranean city--the land of the lost, the forgotten, the homeless and the insane. This novel is a pavement-pounding masterpiece of terror.

John Saul is a master of horror. I started as a teen, reading Suffer the Children, and have read almost every one of his books, but this one stayed with me far after the last page was turned. Along with Stephen King and Dean Koontz, Saul has been responsible for some of my sleepless nights and most terrifying dreams. And I can't wait for their next books! :)

~Cheryl Kaye Tardif
Author of Whale Song (978-1-60164-007-9)
Available 2007 from Kunati Books

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Street Politics
Asef Bayat
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Labor & Industrial Relations | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Iran | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0231108591

Book Description

-- Choice

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, an active political movement emerged on the streets of Iran's largest cities. Poor people began to construct their own communities on unused urban lands, creating an infrastructure----roads, electricity, running water, garbage collection, and shelters----all their own. As the Iranian government attempted to evict these illegal settlers, they resisted----fiercely and ultimately successfully. This is the story of their economic and political strategies.

Land in California: The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters, Mining Claims, Railroad Grants, Land Scrip, Homesteads (Chronicles of California)

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Land in California
An Excellent Primer
Story of Land in California
Land in Californnia

Land in California: The Story of Mission Lands, Ranchos, Squatters, Mining Claims, Railroad Grants, Land Scrip, Homesteads (Chronicles of California)
W. W. Robinson
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0520038754

Customer Reviews:

Land in California.......2005-02-21

When W. W. Robinson wrote this history of land titles in California he was employed by Title Insurance and Trust Company in Los Angeles. He was what was referred to as a Titleman, a person trained to research and interpret land ownership and land titles. As a fellow Titleman for over 40 years I have purchased at least 100 copies of this book, which I use as a training aid in the title insurance industry. It is easily the best introduction to the history of California land ownership and titles and the origins of such legal rights. As a history book, a training aid, or just as a pleasure to read, this narrative would be an excellent choice.

An Excellent Primer.......2005-01-18

"Land in California" is an excellent primer for those looking to get a grasp on how California was settled. It offers a clear description of who the players were in the settling of the state and offers great leads for other fields of inquiry into state history. A "must-have" for any California history buff.

Story of Land in California.......2002-04-05

This was an excellent book full of information not often found in other books on the California Ranchos. The author actually includes a chapter on Indian land ownership that is hard to find anywhere else. Some of the smaller ranchos were left out, which is why I gave this a 4 star reading, but well worth your time.

Land in Californnia.......2000-04-06

This is an engrossing, thoroughly researched book about California land grants and ranchos during the period 1769-1846. Lists all such grants for the entire state. A "must read" for anyone researching the history of California.

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