THE slums and the urban segregation they are two processes that are directly linked. Such phenomena are the result of socioeconomic inequalities and urban planning and management problems. In addition to being the result of social contradictions, the formation of favelas contributes to the intensification and reproduction of socio-spatial segregation.
Favelas are commonly understood as human dwellings in hilly areas. But, in fact, favelas designate areas of occupation of invaded land, generally belonging to the public power, which characterized, in general, by the lack of infrastructure, the high levels of violence and the social marginalization of their residents.
The slum process is mainly due to the process of urban swell or urban macrocephaly. This concept is understood as the disorderly growth of the city, without state control, which contributes to the precariousness of the conditions of city life and the State's inability to provide structural conditions to meet the minimum needs of a large part of the population.
This process is a consequence of the so-called rural exodus, that is, the mass migration process of the population that resides in the countryside to the cities, due to the process of land concentration in the agrarian environment and the replacement of man by machine in the production process agricultural.
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Thus, many people migrate from the countryside to the city in search of jobs and better living conditions. But as these people generally do not have qualified labor, all they find are low wages or queues of unemployed. With no option, these people become marginalized in society, having to resort to occupying irregular areas to guarantee minimum housing conditions.
Such dynamics, therefore, contributes to the process of urban segregation and slums, giving rise to areas that only occupy highlights in police and journalistic pages. which are treated by public managers as zones of violence, and not as areas for investments in infrastructure or relocation housing.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PENA, Rodolfo F. Alves. "Slums and Urban Segregation"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/favelizacao-segregacao-urbana.htm. Accessed on June 27, 2021.
