Planet of Slums (Ch 1) Mike Davis
Mike Davis seems very concerned with the ever increasing urban population and with the fact that for the first time, the urban population of the earth will outnumber the rural population. Davis states impressive statistics proving this point that not only has the population in urban cities massively increased, it also has done so faster that predicted. Mike Davis explained that in 1950, there were 86 cities in the world with a population of more than one million and today there are 400 cities. He argues that by 2015 there will be at least 550, and that by 2020 the maximum population in the global countryside will have been reached, and the population in the countryside will begin to diminish.
The population build-up and the urbanization that is yet to occur in the final build out of urban societies will occur in the urban areas of developing countries including China, India, Africa, and Brazil. Along with exploding population rates in these urban settings, new urban networks, corridors, and hierarchies also are being developed such as the Rio/Sao Paulo Extended Metropolitan Region hosting a population of 37 million (which is larger than the Tokyo population.)
However even if people are not moving to the big cities, the cities are moving to the rural countries. This can be seen as both a positive and negative thing. Gregory Guldin, an anthropologist stated that “urbanization must be conceptualized as structural transformation along, and intensified interaction between, every point of an urban-rural continuum.” (Page8) He argues that “villages become more like market and xiang towns, and county towns and small cities become more like large cities.” The city is migrating to the rural towns, such as in Malaysia, where urbanization negatively impacted an ordinary fisherman when he experienced his fishing grounds polluted and the hillsides surrounding his home destroyed. Brining new urbanized ways of life and into rural suburbs is demolishing distinctions between the two very different lifestyles and combining them into a cultural fusion. (Page 9)This migration of the urban city to the rural world, and the fusion of blending lifestyles are accredited to globalization. “Globalization has increased the movement of people, goods, services, information, news, products, and money, and thereby the presence of urban characteristics in rural areas and of rural traits in urban centers” (page 11).
After the urban boom and the fall in the economy in such places as Tanzania, Congo, and Angola, people were stunned as they watched economies fall into recession, yet still support annual population growth as it doubled. This drove these cities into a state of “over urbanization.” Over urbanization,” driven by the reproduction of poverty, not by the supply of jobs, has been a one of the unexpected byproducts in this neoliberal world. Along with this over urbanization, (increased population in states of poverty,) population growth in slums is also rising. In some cases, such as the case in Africa, slums are growing at twice the speed of the continent’s exploding cities. (Page 18) Slums are nothing new to our society. They used to be constructed of mud, and now are being made of brick, straw, and plastic, but either way, Mike Davis seems to think that the slums will be sticking around and are a permanent reminder about how much of the 21st century urban world really lives.
Up until reading the first chapter of the Mike Davis book, I never realized the intense and quick rate that our population is multiplying. As I was reading this, I constantly kept thinking of globalization, and how amazing it is so many people across the world can be so connected through technology and other means of communication. Even though Davis through a lot of unnecessary statistics and numbers at us during the first chapter, I thought they helped prove his point and was stunned by some of the rates of population growth.
How Do You Quote a Pirate? 
All throughout the first chapter of Planet of the Slums I couldn’t help but think of the dystopian vision of the future that movies like Blade Runner envisioned. They weren’t composed of pristine steel and chrome with towering structures of light, but rather resembled the old brick and stone buildings of the early twentieth century (also lots of ziggarauts and advertisements). The entire world of Blade Runner was more or less a planet of slums. I feel that the rapid rate at which our population is increasing and the increasing level of poverty to follow suit more or less fits these cyberpunk dystopian worlds to a T.
Kevin Tran said this on May 6, 2009 at 3:59 pm |
Reading things about human population growth puts my mood in a tailspin. The piece about how one African population exploded from 300,000 to 13 million in 50 years boggles my mind. Davis also pointed out how in places like Mumbai and such have quickly growing slums, where these slums form moats around city centers.
The thing that saddens me is how in the economically depressed and impoverished places the population seems to be booming. I realize some of it has to do with lack of education, so I guess I can’t say it’s common sense (Harvey would say “good” sense) that if you’re living in poor conditions, it’s probably only delivering a child to a life of suffering.
So the question of the creation of the planet of slums leads me to wonder just when the Earth will not be able to support the burgeoning human population.
brett09uwp said this on May 6, 2009 at 6:03 pm |
Mike Davis’ use of statistics indeed is a powerful lens that helps reader to see another aspect of globalization. Three of the cities mentioned in his book: Guangzhou, Dong Guan and Hong Kong are very personal to me; I was born in the first one and frequently visited the latter two as I was growing up. I am impressed to how Mike Davis was able to pinpoint the most characteristic aspect of the economical problem in those cities right now: “ ‘Overurbanization,’ in other words, is driven by the reproduction of poverty, not by the supply of jobs” (pg 16). I just saw the news two weeks ago how 3000 fresh college graduates fled to Hong Kong for about 100 job openings to work at a cemetery. Overall, I agree with the above comment of how the statistics saddens me because the future seems gloomy.
cindee1031 said this on May 6, 2009 at 10:55 pm |
I have to agree with kevin that, although geographists seemed to predict vast improvements on housing for the poor at first, in movies we can see a lot more the vision of slums being a central area of housing for most of the urban poor.
Wenceslas Etzol said this on May 7, 2009 at 1:55 pm |
While reading this chapter, I thought a lot about The Wire and Slumdog Millionaire. Both show what I think are realistic portrayals of slums around the world. Davis mentioned facts about how the populations of the slums would increase, but housing doesn’t increase as quickly. In The Wire, West Baltimore houses many people in more than one place. For example, Wallace’s siblings all sleep in one or two rooms. Meanwhile, in the city, there are houses lined up that will only hold one family each. Also, in Slumdog Millionaire, there people live very close together.
I also wonder how many of the statistics are actually true predictions. At some point in the near future, we will not be able to increase our population. We already don’t have the resources to feed and house everyone (well, we might, but the resources aren’t distributed properly). This just makes it difficult to believe that “African slums-dweller”s will double every 15 years. (pg 19) Eventually, the doubling process will have to stop.
cauble said this on May 7, 2009 at 2:12 pm |
The statistics in “Planet of Slums” did help me understand the great increase in the population of the Third World and the spreading of urbanization. The population increase and the spreading of urbanization are cause because of the globalization through the First World. However, these phenomenon brought increase of slums in the Third World.
hank said this on May 7, 2009 at 3:36 pm |
Davis talks about cities expanding and I have seen this first hand in the city i grew up in. I grew up in Santa Clarita (30 miles north of LA, next to Magic Mountain). Over the last few years the number of houses being built has increased drastically. There used to be hills and open areas, but now they are all houses. they are running out of room to put houses. The city is gong to overcrowded soon. Ten years ago the population was 120,000 and in ten years it had increased by 50% to 180,000. In 2030 the population is supposed to be 226,000. I feel like the city is not capable of holding that many people so I agree with what Davis is talking about.
Joey Dietrich said this on May 7, 2009 at 3:55 pm |
It is really sad to see the statistics that Mike Davis puts forth in this chapter showing how there are so many slums growing so fast. Before reading this book I used to think that mass urbanization was a good thing, however know i am not to sure how i feel about it.
birdoh4 said this on May 7, 2009 at 4:03 pm |