| Dictionary, Encyclopedia and Thesaurus - The Free Dictionary 1,757,943,323 visitors served. |
|
Dictionary/ thesaurus | Medical dictionary | Legal dictionary | Financial dictionary | Acronyms | Idioms | Encyclopedia | Wikipedia encyclopedia | ? |
slum |
Also found in: Financial, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.02 sec. |
slumDensely populated area of substandard housing, usually in a city, characterized by unsanitary conditions and social disorganization. Rapid industrialization in 19th-century Europe was accompanied by rapid population growth and the concentration of working-class people in overcrowded, poorly built housing. England passed the first legislation for building low-income housing to certain minimum standards in 1851; laws for slum clearance were first enacted in 1868. In the U.S., slum development coincided with the arrival of large numbers of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; laws concerning adequate ventilation, fire protection, and sanitation in urban housing were passed in the late 1800s. In the 20th century government and private organizations built low-income housing and appropriated funds for urban renewal and offered low-interest home loans. Shantytowns, which often grow up around urban centres in developing countries as rural populations migrate to the cities in search of employment, are one type of slum for which alleviating measures have yet to be successfully introduced. See also urban planning. slum a squalid section of a city, characterized by inferior living conditions and usually by overcrowding How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
|
| ? Mentioned in | ? References in periodicals archive | |
|---|---|---|
Public provision of effective sanitation and safe water is now further threatened by the imposition of neoliberal policies of privatisation, which, incredibly, impose 'user fees' for access to public toilets and to water supplies that slum dwellers can ill afford. Because slum dwellers needed ways to handle minor offenses, and because the police didn't have the resources to fully meet this need, Roy thought the best solution was to get slum dwellers to devise their own policing. It is clear that without effective urban management in Africa's towns and cities, the Millennium Development Goals will not be achieved--especially the MDG targets to attain universal primary education, reduce child mortality, combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases, halve the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe water and improve the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020--unless they are met in urban areas. |
| Encyclopedia |
| Free Tools: |
For surfers:
Free toolbar & extensions |
Word of the Day |
Help
For webmasters: Free content | Linking | Lookup box | Double-click lookup | Partner with us |
|---|