Shadow Cities: A Billion Squatters, A New Urban World

Throughout the centuries, squatting has been one of the most pervasive forms of human settlement. From resistance to the enclosure movement in early modern Europe to the gradual settlement of the USA, ordinary people have continually and illegally seized unoccupied and underutilized lands. By some reliable estimates, urban squatters make up one-tenth of the world population (about 600 million people). How did this happen, and how are squatters able to survive in what are often sub-Dickensian conditions? Shadow Cities offers an historically based justification of squatters' rights, arguing that property rights are not 'natural.' To argue his case, Neuwirth provides rich first-hand accounts of squatters in megacities throughout the world - Rio, Delhi, Istanbul and Nairobi. As squatters have come to dominate these cities and develop new forms of property rights, they are a preview of the world's urban future. Neuwirth contrasts this with a history of squatting in the US up to the present, and shows how draconian anti-squatting laws are out of step with a world whose population of impoverished people is rapidly growing.

Table of Contents:
Prologue: Crossing the Tin Roof Boundary Line Time Present Rio de Janeiro Nairobi Mumbai Istanbul Time Past The 21st Century Medieval City Squatters in New York Issues on the Way Forward The Habitat Fantasy Are squatters criminals? Proper Squatters, Improper Property Time Future The Cities of Tomorrow Sources

About the Author :
Robert Neuwirth is an investigative reporter who specializes in urban issues. He has written for The New York Times, The Nation, Metropolis, The Village Voice, New York Magazine, and many other publications. He received a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his work on squatter communities.

Review :
'Neuwirth gets the lowdown on the low life by becoming a resident of four of the most happening squatopolises: the thriving extralegal pockets of Istanbul, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Rio. His ghetto epiphanies include impeccable civility, self-organizing local governments, bustling economies, modest crime rates, and squatter millionaires.' - Josh McHugh,Wired 'Urban squatters - families that risk the wrath of governments and property owners by building dwellings on land they don't own - represent one out of every ten people on the planet. Squatters create complex local economies with high rises, shopping strips, banks, and self-government in their search for decent places to live. This book reveals squatter communities from Rio to Bombay that give a glimpse into our urban future and show new visions of what constitutes property and community.' - architecture week 'Shadow Cities is at its best shining an investigative lens into areas of urban life that have seldom been described before. It is a wonderful story of the vitality and creativity of ordinary people who have managed to survive and sometimes even prosper in the face of government indifference if not hostility.' - Robert H. Nelson, a professor at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy; Reason Magazine '[A] superbly probing book...Compelling, thought-provoking and written with laconic grace, Neuwirth's study is essential reading for anyone interested in global urban affairs.' -Publisher's Weekly