The Attraction of the Informal: Slums and their voluntary visitors
With Rahul Srivastava and Fabian Frenzel
The concept ’slum’ has traditionally been used to describe misery and squalor, and to stigmatize neighborhoods and justify urban policy neglect, but the actual neighborhoods described as ’slums’ also fascinate non-slum residents. Urban researchers, city planners and architects have marveled at areas of urban poverty, celebrating resilience, entrepreneurship and cunning of its residents and the value of these settlements for urban life. On top of professional visitors, broad swaths of tourists also seek out favelas, ghettos, townships and barrios on leisurely visits. But while slum tourism often evokes moral outrage, critics rarely make the link to the broader patterns of attraction that drives leisurely and professional visitors alike.
Approaching this phenomenon Rahul Srivastava will introduce some of the work he has conducted in Dharavi, recently published with Mathias Echanove, in the book ‚The slum outside - Elusive Dharavi‘. Srivastava and Echanove are members of URBZ, an architectural and urban collective based in Mumbai. They work with homegrown settlements and local economies of neighbourhoods.
Fabian Frenzel investigates the lure that slums exert on a broad range of better-off visitors, looking at the many ways in which this curious form of attraction ignites changes both in the slums themselves and on the world stage. Covering slums in Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok and multiple cities in South Africa, Kenya and India, his new book 'Slumming It' examines the roots and consequences of a growing phenomenon whose effects have ranged from gentrification and urban policy reform to the organization of international development and poverty alleviation. Controversially, Frenzel argues that the rise of slum tourism has drawn attention to important global justice issues, and is far more complex than we initially acknowledged.
Rahul Srivastava is co-director with Matias Echanove of urbz and Urbanology - based in Mumbai and Goa. He has studied Urban Anthropology and is interested in the interface between built forms and human lives.
Fabian Frenzel is lecturer in organization studies at the University of Leicester and senior research fellow with the University of Johannesburg. His research interests concern the intersections of mobility, politics and organization studies.
Fabian Frenzel:
Slumming It: The Tourist Valorisation of Urban Poverty
Zed Books 2016
URBZ Echanove & Srivastava
The Slum Outside: Elusive Dharavi
Strelka 2016