Suchergebnisse

This paper is influenced by Sue Hendler's concerns about the interlinked issues of feminism, ethics and social justice in planning. It uses a feminist-inspired 'everyday life' framework to explore the implication of recent settlement planning on the lives of urban poor people in Delhi. The work argues that, at the very least, planners need to understand the everyday lives of the urban poor if they are to execute socially just decision making in the planning of new settlements for them. Moreover, it suggests that using feminist approaches to planning may provide a more ethical starting point in a context of what Watson (2003) identifies as the 'conflicting rationales' between different groups in the urban arena.

1. Current understandings of homelessness -- 2. Homelessness and international housing policy -- 3. The continuing urban housing shortfall and affordability crisis -- 4. Defining homelessness in developing countries -- 5. Accommodation conditions and differentiating between homeless people and those in inadequate housing -- 6. Estimating the hidden millions -- 7. Who are the hidden millions? The characteristics of homeless people -- 8. Economic, social and cultural causes -- 9. Political and legal issues -- 10. Disaster and conflict -- 11. Exclusion, perceptions and isolation -- 12. Children and homelessness -- 13. Towards strategic interventions for homeless people -- Bibliography

AbstractInterventions for homelessness in developing countries are frequently negative and unhelpful. They tend to exist in an environment of hostility, suspicion and apathy towards homeless people. This environment is cultivated and enhanced by negative and derogatory language and images used by politicians, the public and the media in their portrayal of homeless people as unemployed, beggars, drunks and criminals. Findings from a recently completed study of homelessness in nine developing countries suggest that this perception is largely false. This article argues that, until the popular misconception of homeless people is corrected, even the most well‐intentioned interventions will have little long‐term effect.