Globalization And The Urban Poor

The focus of this paper is the effect of contemporary globalization on poverty and inequality in cities of the 'Global south'. Specifically it addresses the impact of globalization on marginalized communities - slums, squatter settlements and shantytowns - collectively called 'Informal settlements'. This is a timely issue given that over the next 25 years virtually all of the population growth worldwide will be in the cities of developing countries largely concentrated in such settlements. The paper takes a critical look at current assumptions about globalization, urban poverty, and inequality, distinguishing between different constructs and aspects of globalization and separating causality from co-terminality.