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URBAN SOCIETY | Social
inclusion
This section highlights
initiatives promoting social inclusion, including strategies
for ‘people-friendly’ city services, for child-centred
provisions, fully participative urban regeneration schemes,
immigrant absorption programmes, and citizen education projects.
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local level
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Lopes, Felipe & M. Mikhael de Thyse - Fighting Poverty
through Rehabilitation of Poor Neighbourhoods - UN-HABITAT
[pdf]
Portugal - The two methods most frequently
used by municipalities to renovate a neighbourhood are to
demolish existing housing, in order to make room for new
housing, or to undertake expense work to increase the tourist
or commercial value of the area. Both methods reject marginalised
populations by pushing them to the periphery.
That is why the municipality of Lisbon opted for a third
way, not seeking a radical transformation but instead limiting
intervention to the strict minimum necessary to render the
decaying zones inhabitable.
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Schusterman, Ricardo & Ana Hardoy (1997) - "Reconstructing
social capital in a poor urban settlement: the Integral
Improvement Programme in Barrio San Jorge" - Environment
and Urbanization, Vol. 9, No. 1, April 1997 - IIED
[pdf]
Argentina - This paper describes
how the continuous support
provided by an external team over a ten year period in a
lowincome
informal settlement in Buenos Aires (Barrio San Jorge) resulted
in a development process which helped to improve living
conditions, to change the inhabitants’ relationship
with society and to reduce the deprivations normally associated
with low income. This case study suggests that many low-income
illegal settlements need a long and continuous support programme
to allow the many kinds of deprivation and illegality their
inhabitants face to be addressed. Poverty is not “solved”
through one or two quick, sectoral interventions. Action
is needed on many fronts. But this case study also shows
the important catalytic role that international funds can
have in helping low-income communities develop their own
representative organizations. This is important for allowing
them to address their own problems but it is
also central to them being able to successfully negotiate
with their own local governments and utilities for the infrastructure
and services to which they are entitled.
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Sepúlveda, M.A.; G. López & Y.Guaimaro
(2001) - Creciendo en EL Barrio: Percepciones del Entorno
- Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas [pdf]
En los países del Tercer Mundo desde hace décadas
se ha enfrentado un creciente proceso de urbanización
y aumento de la pobreza, el resultado de ésto es
la impresionante proliferación de barrios, también
conocidos como favelas y tugurios en otros países,
todos los cuales, comparten las condiciones de pobreza y
miseria.
Los barrios son vecindades no planificadas, típicamente
iniciadas por invasores sin reconocimiento legal o de derechos,
que carecen de los servicios básicos tales como provisión
estable de agua, servicios de excretas, adecuada recolección
de basura, electricidad, etc. quedando de esa forma sus
habitantes expuestos a enfermedades, delincuencia y desastres
naturales. Carecen de suficientes escuelas, hospitales,
adecuado transporte y comunicación con la ciudad,
así como lugares públicos donde la comunidad
pueda socializar. Los gobiernos nacionales y los locales
han tratado de responder a este fenómeno sin éxito,
en la mayoría de los casos los barrios son vistos
como algo a ser eliminado en vez de verlos como un valor
de la ciudad con un potencial por descubrir.
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Silas, Johan (1999) - Indonesia 1997-1999 - Post
Crisis and the need for intervention - ACHR [pdf]
The problem is never focussed to the
good act of the people, but the place where the act is performed.
Being poor is the reason for a person not able to provide
a proper place to do the act of looking after the family.
Hence the existence of street hawkers and slums is not the
willing mistake of the poor but the failure of local
governments to perform the mandate given by the people.
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UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice - Safh Al Nuzha Urban
Development Project [pdf]
Jordan - The purpose of the initiative
was to recruit active participation of children (males,
12-18 years) in Safh AI-Nuzha neighborhood in Amman, in
order to stimulate community members and civic authorities
to champion their rights to be cared for and reconstruct
a social environment where they would be important and appreciated
collaborators.
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UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice - Partnership between
Shack Dwellers and a Local NGO Housing Lobby Group, Windhoek
[pdf]
Namibia - The purpose of the initiative
is to improve the lives of the urban poor in Namibia. The
objective has been to assist local residents to organize
themselves through saving schemes that offer democratic,
accountable, and representative organizations able to use
their own resources and negotiate with the state for additional
resources in order to address local development needs as
defined by the members themselves.
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city level
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Antoine, Philippe; Mireille Razafindrakoto & François
Roubaud (2001) - Contraints de rester jeune ? Evolution
de l’insertion dans trois capitales africaines : Dakar,
Yaoundé, Antananarivo - DIAL [pdf]
Victimes de la crise prolongée que traversent leurs
pays, les jeunes des trois capitales africaines (Dakar,
Yaoundé et Antananarivo) se trouvent contraints de
reporter le calendrier des événements
marquant leur entrée dans la vie adulte. Un recul
de l’âge aussi bien d’accès au
premier emploi rémunéré, que d’autonomie
résidentielle et de constitution de la famille est
observé des générations aînées
aux plus jeunes. Le sort de ces derniers est d’autant
plus inéquitable que, ni leur niveau d’éducation
plus élevé, ni le fait de différer
leur passage au statut d’adulte, ne leur permet d’échapper
à une dégradation de leurs conditions, relativement
à celles connues par leurs parents, au moment de
leur insertion. On assiste même à un ajustement
par le bas dans la mesure où les plus éduqués
chez les jeunes, au lieu d’être préservés,
sont plus affectés par la détérioration
du contexte économique.
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Corubolo, Enrico (1999) - Urban Management and Social
Justice. Space, power and modernity - March 1999 ESF-NAERUS
Workshop [pdf]
A possible way of looking at development issues is by considering
their inherently moral nature: an overall betterment in
living standards can be and usually is advocated on the
basis that all human beings deserve to live in decent conditions
so as to allow them to enjoy equal opportunities. More than
that, morality also reflects a concern with how differential
treatment can be justified in society. In providing a background
for the whole development discourse, the theme of social
justice thus becomes an expression of the moral interrogatives
raised in the allocation of the conditions by which improvements
in living conditions can be arrived at, as well as in the
definition of the measures to arrive at such conditions.
As a consequence, also the significance attached to social
justice can be very diverse, as an expression of different
views of the world and hence of different sets of normative
tools to act within it. |
UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice - Urban
and Environmental Rehabilitation of Sao Bernardo do Campo
Watershed [pdf]
Brazil - The project aims at improving
the quality of life and enhancing social integration of
the population residing in squatters settlements in watershed
preservation areas.It aims at fostering their involvement
and awareness in the preservation of these springs and headwaters,
improving the quantity and quality of the water available,
as well as to rehabilitate the Watershed of the Billings
Reservoir which is of crucial importance to the Greater
Metropolitan Sao Paulo Area.
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UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice Revitalization of
the Social Fabric and Housing Programme, Santa Maria da
Feira [pdf]
Portugal - This programme allowed 261
families to gain access to adequate housing and it assisted
300 families as part of the project that fights poverty.
This rehousing was accompanied by initiatives that promoted
social re-integration, by reorganizing daily living and
by offering a whole set of practices that are inherent to
its new living framework.
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UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice - People Friendly
city, Baku [pdf]
Azerbaijan - Baku city became more clean,
comfortable, beautiful site due to the newly built and restored
ancient buildings, monuments of the ancient culture, architecture,
sculptures and mosques. The broken roads in the city and
its surroundings are maintained and also sport and recreation
zones have been built. The inhabitants themselves say, "Baku
city became the most beautiful city for people that dreamt
of living life in peace and dignity"
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UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice - Rosario: The New
Citizenship Landscape [pdf]
Argentina - The Municipality of Rosario
is carrying out the Municipal Decentralization Program and
has created six District Municipal Centres that reduce bureaucracy
and make management and assistance more effective. It also
increases citizens' participation in social and urban development
of their neighbourhoods. In order to create institutional
mechanisms of participation and to utilise the creativity
of the new citizens, the Municipal Executive undertook the
Project called Rosario: The City of Children in 1996.
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UN-Habitat (2002) - Best Practice -Gender & Citizenship
in the Integrated Program for Social Inclusion, Santo Andre
[pdf]
Brazil - The Integrated Program for Social
Inclusion (PIIS) aims to develop various joint and simultaneous
actions, in the same urban territory, focusing on social
inclusion and managed with a participatory approach. The
Program is based on the concept that social exclusion is
multidimensional, involving economic, social, urban, cultural,
and political factors that articulate and reinforce each
other.
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international level
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Beall, Jo (2002) - "Globalization and social exclusion
in cities: framing the debate with lessons from Africa and
Asia" - Environment & Urbanization, Vol
14 No 1 April 2002 - IIED [pdf]
This paper considers the contradictory roles demanded of
city
governments as they seek to keep their cities competitive
in an increasingly globalized world economy while also having
increasing responsibilities for addressing social problems,
and making local economic development less exclusionary.
After reviewing debates on globalization, social exclusion
and their interconnections, the paper discusses the impact
of globalization on the sweepers in Faisalabad (Pakistan)
and on livelihoods in Johannesburg. In Johannesburg, the
new socially excluded are those who are superfluous to the
requirements of the global economy and Johannesburg’s
position within it. Exclusionary processes associated with
globalization (including changes in the international division
of labour) graft themselves onto local dynamics of social
exclusion. The scope for government action at national and
city level is also reduced by the downsizing of governments,
and liberalization, privatization and deregulation.
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Ochola, Lynette & Andre Dzikus (2000) - Street Children
and Gangs in African Cities: Guidelines for Local Authorities
- UN-HABITAT / UMP [pdf]
Local authorities in Africa are increasingly confronted
with a rising number of street children and all too often
do not quite know how to deal with this growing problem.
It is thus the objective of this report to provide guidelines
for local authorities in Africa on how to deal with street
children in their cities.
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web
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Documents highlighting DFID's published
work in support of health and education in urban areas: |
"National
Social Rehabilitation Centre" - Wakely, Patrick;
Nicholas You (2001) – Implementing the Habitat
Agenda: In Search of Urban Sustainability - DPU
[pdf]
Bulgaria - The National Social Rehabilitation
Centre is the first organisation in Bulgaria working
to improve the welfare of disabled people. It offers
social services and aims at assuring better working
and living conditions and social integration for disabled
people. In the past, in Bulgaria, people with disabilities
were placed in isolated 'social care homes' and young
people with disabilities were ignored by society.
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"Post-Conflict
Reconstruction and Development in Greater Mafikeng"
- Ibid. [pdf]
South Africa - Administered by the
Department of Local Government and implemented the
Mafikeng City Council, this project is a prime example
of successful
post-conflict reconstruction and development, which
aims to rebuild social cohesion back into a formerly
divided and neglected area of South Africa.
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"Promoting
Child Action" - Ibid. [pdf]
South Africa - Children are indispensable
partners in the creation of sustainable settlements.
The Growing Up in Cities initiative provides ways
of engaging their experience, vision and energies
in improving urban environments. |
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