ABSTRACT
Those of us living and working in the global North must struggle to look at the world from the vantage point of the majority of urban dwellers, who live in Africa, Asia and Latin America and are the objects of orientalist myths that permeate our discussions. These myths portray the “underdeveloped” metropolis as a collection of giant, chaotic, unsanitary, and dangerous “slums,” a homogenous and undifferentiated landscape inhabitated by “the other.” The myths lead to policies that blame the other for urban problems and perpetuate structural inequalities (see Chapters One and Two).
