Shanty towns have always been associated with today's third world countries and have never been a major part of European history. Although poverty in towns and cities did exist and slums did develop there was never the kind of sprawling shanty towns now evident in most ELDC's. This is because urbanisation has, and is taking place at a much greater pace in third world cities than has ever been seen before. Urbanisation is taking place so quickly that city authorities can not provide services for the masses of poor who now live in third world cities. The poor have no choice but to build there own housing where and with what they can. So it is rapid urbanisation that causes the development of shanty towns in ELDC's. This poses the question, why are ELDC's undergoing such rapid urbanisation when clearly there is by no means enough adequate housing for the population.

It would be wrong to assume that it is large-scale migration that causes such rapid urbanisation, in fact in 1995 rural-urban migration accounted for only 37% of urban growth in ELDC's. It is in fact that in 1995 natural increase accou

Urbanisation in today's third world is taking place at a much faster rate than ever seen before and the numbers involved are massive, every week 1000 people move to Manila in search of work and nearly all move to a shanty town or slum such as Smokey Mountain built on the cities rubbish dump. Governments in these poor third world countries are virtually powerless to stem the tide of migrants and equally inefficient at housing them. Governments should concentrate on providing safe land and suitable materials for the construction of houses. Communities should be given assistance in building adequate water and sewage systems along with working to provide electricity for the people. On these corner stones people can build their lives as well as their houses. Proper houses could be maintained and passed on down the generations instead of being washed away in the next flood.

On the other hand it would be easy to blame the growth of shanty towns and the poverty there in on the people who live in them for not having the "right attitude" when surely the problem is simply that there are not enough jobs, houses and money to go round.

Stokes C applied this principal to spontaneous settlements, "Slums of hope" and "Slums of despair" not categorising individual settlements but the attitudes of the people within it. An individuals move to the city demonstrates their strive for self-improvement and success in finding a job and building a home are demonstrations of their achievements. In contrast shanty towns can be a picture of man's failures, violence, drugs and broken homes can destroy the spirit of an individual leading to vicious circle of social deprivation where self help won't work.

In 1840's Britain during the industr

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1164
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)