Publisher's Synopsis
The true planners and builders of cities in the developing world are the poor. They organize, plan and build with no help from professionals. Drawing on their own skills, making the best use of limited resources and forming their own community organizations, they account for most new city housing. But the city, which thrives on their cheap labour, rejects them. Their houses are deemed illegal, because they do not conform to regulations and they are called "squatters", because they cannot afford to buy sites legally. Their rights to water, education and health care, even to vote, are often denied.;This book is about the lives of these "squatter citizens" in cities of Africa, Asia and Latin America and the problems they face in their struggle for survival. It describes how they develop their own homes and neighbourhoods and their other contributions to city development. It challenges many common assumptions about urban change - for example that urban citizens live in very large cities and that cities are growing rapidly, or that city dwellers benefit from "urban bias" in government and aid policies.
