■ Urban Growth as a Problem

This chapter provides an introduction to the problems of urban growth. Most governments have identified urban growth as a problem and many have used repressive measures to control it. For instance, in Senegal in 1977 there was a major effort to remove beggars and small traders from the streets of Dakar while in Nigeria in 1983, there was a massive “clean up” of urban traders. In Tanzania, in 1983, elaborate administrative machinery was established for the “transfer, training and rehabilitation of unemployed residents”, which led to thousands of arrests in Dar es Salaam. As late as 1976, a UNESCO Expert Meeting on Urban Problems talked of “the ever increasing migratory movement — in practice beyond control — of families from rural areas attracted to the glitter and fallacious promises of consumer society”, with the migrants described as “potential parasites”.