Urban Life in Delhi Slums: Stories of Community Solutions and Resilience

This book investigates urban life in the slums of Delhi, demonstrating how individuals and communities self-organise to solve problems that arise in their neighbourhoods.

Around one-quarter of the world’s urban population live in informal, slum and squatter settlements, representing a significant economic and cultural force. Despite this, settlements are often perceived as marginal, homogenous places, overlooking the resilience and agency of the diverse actors, networks and social groups working collectively within them. This book draws on extensive qualitative and quantitative data from squatter and resettlement colonies in and around Delhi, foregrounding the voices of residents to build a bottom-up picture of place and urban development. The book analyses the contexts in which households operate within their communities and the adaptiveness of individuals living in different slum types, with differing levels of governance. In doing so, the book demonstrates the effect which different institutional agreements and governance systems have on enterprise, empowerment, resilience, trust, dignity and engaging in life that has purpose and meaning.

This book’s detailed assessment of slum spaces and networks will be of interest to researchers across a range of fields, including international development, geography, urban planning, politics and sociology, as well as to policy makers and civil society organisations.

Pauline Dixon PhD, FAcSS, FRSA is a world-class researcher who has established herself as a leading authority both nationally and internationally around grassroots research for development in the global south. Her research advances knowledge and understanding that allows for the provision of creative solutions to solve global problems. Pauline’s research is transformative carried out within and between disciples. Regarded as a leading global expert by academics and policy makers she has worked in India for over 25 years. Her research has also led her to carry out projects focusing on comparative analysis as well as census and survey fieldwork on a large scale in both Asia and Africa. She is called on to appear on multiple platforms and media, winning awards and accolades from around the world. Her work focuses on dispelling myths and carrying out research that informs policy initiatives that are based on solutions from the grassroots and poor communities themselves.

Steve Humble MBE, FIMA is a reader in global development at Newcastle University in the UK. He carries our research in India and sub-Saharan Africa being called upon extensively as an expert in collecting and analyzing data from large samples using advanced statistical techniques. Being recognized as a global leader in development policy using statistical inferences he has been called upon to work with the British government on several committees and initiatives to investigate, support and develop educational improvements and social equity policy. Humble’s book ’Quantitative Analysis of Questionnaires. Techniques to Explore Structures and Relationships’, was published by Routledge (2020). Steve was awarded an MBE, a grade within the British order of chivalry - Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire - for Services to Education in the Queen’s 2016 New Year’s Honours List conferred upon him at Buckingham Palace by Prince William, the Prince of Wales.