ABSTRACT
Urban poverty and inequality can be conceptualised in terms of two variables: first, how smoothly or speedily one is able to tap into and navigate various circuits of flow (water, electricity, sewage, transportation, capital, and means of production) that structure urban existence; and second, how effectively one is able to sequester and regulate these flows. To put it another way, livelihood and accumulation anywhere depend on the ability to balance circulation and internment — but these imperatives become especially pressing in urbanising contexts where competition for ‘land’ and ‘territory’ (as defended area) are intense. This implies that the less effectively one is able to manoeuvre and regulate the circuits that carry urban flows the more likely one is to be among the urban poor. It follows that urban poverty and its visible symptoms (such as precarious employment, insecure access to housing, poor health, stunted literacy levels, etc.) are resolutely geographic phenomena connected to the singular, evolving patterns of movement and blockage that traverse and splinter urban formations.
