IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v36y1999i9p1523-1534.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Slum Upgrading Myth

Author

Listed:
  • Herbert Werlin

    (5910 Weschester Park Drive, College Park, Maryland 20740-2802, USA, werlin@crosslinknet)

Abstract

The World Bank's slum upgrading approach, used for the first generation of its urban development projects during the 1970s and 1980s, was considerably influenced by the writing of John F. C. Turner. Turner minimised the role of government, limiting it to providing essential environmental improvements and public services, thereby allowing squatters and/or slum-dwellers to improve gradually their living conditions. While early evaluations of slum upgrading projects in Calcutta, Jakarta and Manila indicated the success of this approach, later evaluations raise doubts about it. The 'minimal state' advocated by Turner is clearly unable to deal with the problems typically emerging from slum upgrading efforts. For these efforts to be sustainable and replicable, more attention must be paid to providing land tenure, requiring a combination of authoritarian and humanistic administration.

Suggested Citation

  • Herbert Werlin, 1999. "The Slum Upgrading Myth," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 36(9), pages 1523-1534, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:36:y:1999:i:9:p:1523-1534
    DOI: 10.1080/0042098992908
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/0042098992908
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/0042098992908?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gabrielle Watson & N. Vijay Jagannathan, 1995. "Participation in the Water and Sanitation Sector," World Bank Publications - Reports 11660, The World Bank Group.
    2. Israel, A., 1992. "Issues for Infrastructure Management in the 1990s," World Bank - Discussion Papers 171, World Bank.
    3. Crane, Randall, 1994. "Water markets, market reform and the urban poor: Results from Jakarta, Indonesia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 71-83, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alan Gilbert, 2007. "The Return of the Slum: Does Language Matter?," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 697-713, December.
    2. Arimah, C. Ben, 2010. "The Face of Urban Poverty Explaining the Prevalence of Slums in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 030, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. George G. Wagah & Mathenge Mwehe & Nelson Obange & Peris Teyie & Maria Nystrom, 2017. "Land Tenure Systems in Kisumu City; The Formal-Informal Dichotomy," International Journal of Sciences, Office ijSciences, vol. 6(10), pages 32-42, October.
    4. Franklin, Simon, 2020. "Enabled to work: The impact of government housing on slum dwellers in South Africa," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    5. Lall, Somik V. & Suri, Ajay & Deichmann, Uwe, 2005. "Household savings and residential mobility in informal settlements," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3596, The World Bank.
    6. Andrea Rigon, 2014. "Building Local Governance: Participation and Elite Capture in Slum-upgrading in Kenya," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(2), pages 257-283, March.
    7. Daniel M. Nzengya, 2018. "Improving water service to the urban poor through delegated management: Lessons from the city of Kisumu, Kenya," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(2), pages 190-202, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Daniel Edevbaro, 1997. "Promoting Education within the Context of a Neo-Patrimonial State: The Case of Nigeria," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-1997-123, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    2. Georg Meran & Markus Siehlow & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2021. "Pipes, Taps, and Vendors: An Integrated Water Management Approach," Water Economics and Policy (WEP), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 7(04), pages 1-29, October.
    3. AfDB AfDB, 2002. "Working Paper 48 - Challenges of Infrastructure Rehabilitation and Reconstruction in War - Affected Economies," Working Paper Series 2183, African Development Bank.
    4. Žigienė Gerda, 2018. "Presumptions of Decentralisation in the Context of Institutional and Political Economy," Management of Organizations: Systematic Research, Sciendo, vol. 80(1), pages 131-147, December.
    5. Henrique Monteiro, 2010. "Residential Water Demand in Portugal: checking for efficiency-based justifications for increasing block tariffs," Working Papers Series 1 ercwp0110, ISCTE-IUL, Business Research Unit (BRU-IUL).
    6. Céline Nauges & Caroline Berg, 2009. "Demand for Piped and Non-piped Water Supply Services: Evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 42(4), pages 535-549, April.
    7. Alan Gilbert, 2007. "Water for All: How To Combine Public Management with Commercial Practice for the Benefit of the Poor?," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(8), pages 1559-1579, July.
    8. Lam, Wai Fung, 1996. "Institutional design of public agencies and coproduction: A study of irrigation associations in Taiwan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(6), pages 1039-1054, June.
    9. Yusep Suparman & Henk Folmer & Johan H.L. Oud, 2016. "The willingness to pay for in-house piped water in urban and rural Indonesia," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 95(2), pages 407-426, June.
    10. Sumila Gulyani & Debabrata Talukdar & R. Mukami Kariuki, 2005. "Universal (Non)service? Water Markets, Household Demand and the Poor in Urban Kenya," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 42(8), pages 1247-1274, July.
    11. Johnstone, Nick & Wood, Libby & Hearne, Robert R., 1999. "The Regulation of Private Sector Participation in Urban Water Supply and Sanitation: Realising Social and Environmental Objectives in Developing Countries," Discussion Papers 24142, International Institute for Environment and Development, Environmental Economics Programme.
    12. Wutich, Amber & Beresford, Melissa & Carvajal, Cinthia, 2016. "Can Informal Water Vendors Deliver on the Promise of A Human Right to Water? Results From Cochabamba, Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 14-24.
    13. Heinrich Zozmann & Alexander Morgan & Christian Klassert & Bernd Klauer & Erik Gawel, 2022. "Can Tanker Water Services Contribute to Sustainable Access to Water? A Systematic Review of Case Studies in Urban Areas," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-27, September.
    14. Nauges,Celine & Van Den Berg,Caroline, 2006. "Water markets, demand, and cost recovery for piped water supply services : evidence from Southwest Sri Lanka," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3941, The World Bank.
    15. Meran, Georg & Siehlow, Markus & von Hirschhausen, Christian, 2018. "Pipes, Taps and Vendors: Managing and Regulating the Unconnected Water Market," VfS Annual Conference 2018 (Freiburg, Breisgau): Digital Economy 181584, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    16. P. B. Anand & Roger Perman, 1999. "Preferences, inequity and entitlements: some issues from a CVM study of water supply in Madras, India," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(1), pages 27-46.
    17. Alberini, Anna & Eskeland, Gunnar S. & Krupnick, Alan & McGranahan, Gordon, 1996. "Determinants of diarrheal disease in Jakarta," Policy Research Working Paper Series 1568, The World Bank.
    18. Mitlin, Diana, 2002. "Competition, Regulation and the Urban Poor: A Case Study of Water," Centre on Regulation and Competition (CRC) Working papers 30606, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    19. Spencer, James H., 2010. "Health and the Urban Transition Effects of Household Perceptions, Illness, and Environmental Pollution on Clean Water Investment," WIDER Working Paper Series 066, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Xun Wu & Nepomuceno A. Malaluan, 2008. "A Tale of Two Concessionaires: A Natural Experiment of Water Privatisation in Metro Manila," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 45(1), pages 207-229, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:36:y:1999:i:9:p:1523-1534. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.