ABSTRACT
Increased urbanization creates a growing competition for cities to be attractive business destinations. As a result, several major cities are going through the process of urban revitalization, seeking to significantly transform formerly run-down or poor urban areas and create a better socio-economic and physical atmosphere. This approach has become an increasingly common practice in both the global North and the global South. Historical projects such as ‘slum clearance in the USA’ (Collins and Shester 2009) and current initiatives like ‘Slum-Free Lagos’1 and ‘Slum-Free Mumbai’ (see Gordon n.d.) are examples. The upshot of such projects has been to exclude the poor from the planning process, to name but one severe shortcoming of such an approach.
