The World Urban Forum 3 opened today in Vancouver, and on the weekend I caught the first of the CBC coverage – an interesting documentary on Rocinha and Dharavi, “Slum Cities: A Shifting World”. If you’ve read Davis’ Planet of Slums, or Neuwirth’s Shadow Cities and his excellent squattercity blog, the documentary didn’t cover anything new, but the webpage has lots of additional information and resources, including an interview with Mike Davis and CBC news reports on world slums.
I’m also looking forward to CBC Radio’s Ideas programme on June 26th (the day before Canadian Multiculturalism Day) when they’ll be broadcasting tonight’s UBC – Laurier Institution Multiculturalism Lecture by Leonie Sandercock: “Mongrel Cities Of The 21st Century: Is Multiculturalism The Solution Or The Problem?” (presumably drawing from her thought-provoking book Cosmopolis II: Mongrel Cities of the 21st Century).
The cityspace site also includes urban stories and an interactive map. There are interviews from the 1976 Habitat conference, assessments of Canada’s New Deal for Cities, architect-led walking tours, and the map includes city and country facts, as well as place-based stories submitted from readers here and around the world.
See also:
State of the Worlds Cities 2006/7: The Millennium Goals and Urban Sustainability Report
BBC: Report reveals global slum crisis
All interesting, but I’m left wondering when “urban” and “city” become synonymous with “slum”?
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“All interesting, but I’m left wondering when “urban” and ‘city’ become synonymous with ’slum’?”
Perhaps the term reflects planners’ despair at the prospects for planned cities. Perhaps they’ve given up on the dream of an orderly urbanity and their disappointment comes through in nihilistic language.
Just guessing. But have been thinking along somewhat similar lines the last day or so.
Also, regarding Vancouver, here’s an interesting post.