Slum genealogy

Rice, Louis

Abstract

The slum is consuming the world. Thus slums by virtue of their presence: as a utopian model – always present, everywhere and always the same: have power. They have become more powerful than the formal city, princes and philosophers alike are drawn to them.
Slums (aka informal cities) as research objects are often criticised as colonialism and/or poorism, but they can be viewed as the mirror/ inverse effect. Slums cannot be ignored, their presence forces itself into the consciousness of the formal world: of the scientific world. Thus power relations are inversed; power is immanent in slums.
Adopting Banham’s methodology, this research examines the positive and pedagogic elements of slum tourism. In excavating the slum, a genealogical understanding is generated, with lessons for the formal city.

• Presentation Conference Type: Presentation / Talk
• Conference Name: Destination Slum! International Conference
• Start Date: Dec 9, 2010
• End Date: Dec 11, 2010
• Publication Date: Dec 9, 2010
• Peer Reviewed: Not Peer Reviewed
• Keywords: architecture, urban design, informal cities, knowledge
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/972807
• Publisher URL: http://www.kokoens.com/destinationslum/