A Most Unpleasant, but True, Definition of a Slum Area

Most descriptions of slum areas, regardless of where you look, primarily address the spaces and the services. Science Direct, however, has added a human element that, I believe, is essential to grasp a more robust understanding of slums, slum conditions, and slum dwellers.

“A slum is a residential area with substandard housing that is poorly serviced and/or overcrowded, and therefore unhealthy, unsafe, and socially undesirable . . . The term slum is culturally defined and pejorative, with social as well as physical connotations. It is usually applied by outsiders.”1

The Science Direct definition exposes the true nature of slums and slum life when it explains that the term is usually applied by people outside of the slum area and is almost always used in a pejorative, social, and cultural sense. That insight will serve us well later in this report as we seek to understand better the people who live in the slums.

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