Urban displacement and vulnerability

Photo: Chuanwentao

A widowed homeowner walking back with her daughter-in-law, Dharavi, Mumbai.

Abstract: Elite slum dwellers bargain, negotiate and build complex alliances outside the slum to gain power to displace, marginalise and exclude the poorest slum dwellers. Widowhood, one of the most vulnerable statuses, faces dispossession shaping conflicts within slums.

The author is a Senior Lecturer in Development Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London. v.desai@rhul.ac.uk