What To Do About Slums?
Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University
Download Document| Date Published | 2012 |
| Version | |
| Primary Author | Abdul Baasit Abdul Aziz |
| Other Authors | |
| Theme | Neighborhood Upgrading |
| Country |
Abstract
Slum development models and strategies tend to assume a needs-based outlook, focusing on what specific slums lack. In this paper, I argue instead for an asset-based approach to slum development, employing insights from the seminal work of Kretzmann and McNight, which rests on the idea that physical, social, human, and other assets can all be brought to bear to improve slums. I engage at a theoretical level the possible uses of land policy, regulation, transfers, taxation, and other specific strategies to promote an asset-based approach to slum development, and then employ the example of the slum of Nima in Ghana to illustrate how an asset-based approach to slum development might work in practice. I argue that the shift to an asset-based approach can produce positive neighborhood effects, enable slums to overcome negative perceptions, and generate additional support for slum redevelopment efforts while seeking to encourage slum dwellers to take co-responsibility for improving their welfare. From this standpoint, the conception of slums as assets is not only part of the process of creating enabling conditions in slums, it is also a diagnostic and analytical framework for identifying effective entry points in slum development programs.