INTL 190: Housing in the Developing World
Time: TBA, Galbraith Room (HSS 4025)
Nancy H. Kwak nhkwak@ucsd.edu office hours tba
BRIEF INTRO:
The goal of this course is to introduce you to some of the major housing problems developing world cities face in
the twentieth century. We will examine the relationship between current -day housing problems with historical
programs, plans, and political/social/economic contexts. We will compare national experiences, and think about
what principles of policymaking we might extract. Our point of view will change from week to week: sometimes we
will look at these problems from the perspective of government officials, planners, and architects; other weeks, we
will think about what it is like to actually live in these cities as upper-, middle-, and working-class residents. We will
constantly keep in mind the questions of who profits and who loses when housing cha nges.
BOOKS:
1. Architecture for Humanity, Design like you give a damn (Metropolis Books, 2006). ISBN 1933045256.
2. Hernando de Soto, Mystery of Capital (New York: Basic Books, 2003). ISBN 0465016146.
3. *Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, eds., Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the
New Economy (New York: Holt, 2002). ISBN 0805075097.
4. *Ananya Roy and Nezar AlSayyad, Urban informality: Transnational perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South
Asia (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2003). ISBN 0739107410.
5. Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang leader for a day (Penguin Press, 2008). ISBN 014311493X.
6. Reader and online texts
*We are not reading these complete books, but the number of pages exceeds copyright limitations. I would suggest reading
Roy and AlSayyad in the library, since it is expensive.
REQUIREMENTS :
The reading load is VERY HEAVY. There is no way around that; please look at the syllabus and carefully
consider before choosing this course. You will need to be prepared to discuss readings during class. Every class
session will be devoted to very close discussion of the reading.
As compensation, there are NO EXAMS. Instead, you will write two essays.
Your essays will be argument papers in response to a week’s topic of your choosing. The essay should be
between 1,400-1,600 words (roughly 6-7 pages, double-spaced, 12 pt., Garamond or Times New Roman only,
footnotes only.) The essay must be turned in before or on the day of discussion. You must also submit both papers
to Turnitin.com. Enrollment in this class indicates acceptance of this requirement.
You are expected to lead at least one discussion and to actively participate in each class.
Leading discussion: When you lead class, you need to apply the question(s) from that week to ONE SPECIFIC
CITY IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD. Locate supplemental historical material based on at least two related
secondary sources (one chapter of a book counts, as does a scholarly article.) Your team is required to schedule an
office hours, either physical, or online, before Friday; you should be prepared to discuss possible secondary sources
during this meeting. Your class should begin with a 20-minute lecture and powerpoint presentation with an
organized explanation of how the week’s theme plays out historically in a specific city. You must use maps and
images in your presentation, not just text. After presenting, you must distribute five discussion questions based on
that week’s readings or have them all listed on one powerpoint slide. The simpler the questions, the better.
Questions should be analytical in character rather than demanding simple regur gitation. Last but not least, you
should bring all cords, connections, laptops, etc. needed for your presentation.
GRADES :
40% - Participation – demonstrating that you fully digested readings (not just a lot of random comments)
20% - Presentation
20% - Essay 1
20% - Essay 2
No midterm or final exam.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY :
All students are expected to know and follow university guidelines for academic integrity.
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S CHEDULE :
1/4
Week 1: Housing crises today – intro. Defining the developing world
Mike Davis, Planet of Slums (London: Verso, 2006) chs. 1, 3. reader
1/11
Week 2: Race and housing inequality
Tony Roshan Samara, “Youth, Crime and Urban Renewal in the Western Cape,” Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 31,
No. 1 (Mar., 2005), pp. 209-227. reader
Sudhir Venkatesh, Gang Leader for a Day - all
PAPER TOPIC: What is the greatest obstacle to racial equality in cities? What role does housing policy play in perpetuating
or combating racial inequality?
1/18
Week 3: Development and development aid in the 1950s, 60s
UN-Habitat, State of the World’s Cities: Harmonious Cities 2008-09 (EARTHSCAN, 2008) (Available for full, free download at:
http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=2562.)
Paul Jenkins, Harry Smith, and Ya Ping Wang, Planning and housing in the rapidly urbanizing world (London: Routledge, 2007) chs.
2, 7. reader
Charles Abrams, Man’s Struggle for Shelter in an Urbanizing World (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1966) pp. 213-266. reader
PAPER TOPIC: Did development efforts fail or succeed at improving housing in the developing world?
1/25
Week 4: Self-help housing
Richard Harris, “Slipping through the Cracks: The Origins of Aided Self-help Housing, 1918-53,” Housing Studies, Vol. 14,
No. 3, 281-309, 1999. reader
Janice Perlman, “Marginality: From Myth to Reality in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, 1969-2002,” in Roy and AlSayyad.
Peter M. Ward, “Informality of housing production at the urban-rural interface: the ‘Not so Strange Case” of the Texas
colonias,” in Roy and AlSayyad, pp. 243-270.
Peter Marcuse, “Why Conventional Self-Help Projects Won’t Work” in K. Mathey, ed., Beyond self-help housing (London: Profil
Verlag, 1992). reader
FILM CLIP in class: “City of God” documentary
PAPER TOPIC: When does self-help work?
2/1
Week 5: Gendered housing
In Barbara Ehrenreich and Arlie Russell Hochschild, eds., Global Woman: Nannies, Maids, and Sex Workers in the New
Economy:
Nicole Constable, “Filipino Workers in Hong Kong Homes”
Pei-Chia Lan, “Among Women: Migrant Domestics and their Taiwanese Employers across Generations”
Saskia Sassen, “Global Cities and Survival Circuits”
Maps, pp. 276-280
Mary Romero, Maid in the USA (NY: Routledge, 1992) ch. 4. reader
UN-HABITAT, “Women’s equal rights to housing, land, and property in international law” (2006) (Available for full, free
download at: www.unhabitat.org/pmss/getElectronicVersion.asp?nr=2327&alt=1)
FILM CLIP in class: “My mother built this house”
PAPER TOPIC: How does modernization protect or create new vulnerabilities for women vis-à-vis the home?
2/8
Week 6: Tenure as solution?
Hernando de Soto, Mystery of Capital (New York: Basic Books, 2003).
Ray Bromley, “Power, Property, and Poverty: Why De Soto’s ‘Mystery of Capital’ Cannot be Solved,” in Roy and
AlSayyad, pp. 271-288.
Jacqueline M. Klopp, “Pilfering the Public: The Problem of Land Grabbing in Contemporary Kenya,” Africa Today
Vol. 47, No. 1 (Winter, 2000), pp. 7-26. reader
PAPER TOPIC: Can the granting of tenure transform poverty to prosperity? Why or why not?
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2/15
Week 7: Homeownership
UN Human Settlements Programme, Financing Urban Shelter: Global Report on Human Settlements, 2005 (London:
Earthscan, 2005) pp. 55-97. reader
Chua Beng-huat, Political Legitimacy and Housing: Stakeholding in Singapore (New York: Routledge, 2007) ch. 7. reader
PAPER TOPIC: Why is homeownership valorized? What purposes does it serve?
2/22
Week 8: Urban renewal
Thomas Campanella, Concrete Dragon – chs. 1-3. Available in full online at:
http://site.ebrary.com/pub/papress/docDetail.action?docID=10335368&p00=c. Only accessible on campus. Paper copies
no longer sold by publisher.
Leon Glicksman and Juintow Lin, eds., Sustainable urban housing in China : principles and case studies for low-energy design (Dordrecht:
Springer, c2006) ch. 3. (Available for full, free download at
http://www.springerlink.com/content/k41p14/#section=398801&page=1&locus=0)
“Kenya begins huge slum clearance,” BBC, September 16, 2009. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8258417.stm.
Please make sure to look at “In pictures: Slum Clearance” also.
FILM CLIP in class: “The Sankyeidong Olympics” (27 mins)
PAPER TOPIC: What does urban renewal renew?
3/1
Week 9: Greening housing
Lucy Winchester, Sustainable Human Settlements Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (Santiago, Chile: UN Publications,
2005). (Available for full, free download at: http://www.eclac.org/publicaciones/xml/3/21543/lcl2287i.pdf)
David Pellow, Resisting Global Toxics: Transnational Movements for Environmental Justice (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007) chs. 4,
6. reader
PAPER TOPIC: Is development antithetical to sustainability?
3/8
Week 10: Surviving globalization
Architecture for Humanity, Design like you give a damn - all
Listen to radio show before class: “Island Time,” This American Life – Available for free at:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/408/island-time.
FILM CLIP in class: “E². Design. Season three.” (Director Tad Fettig)
PAPER TOPIC: What are the best first steps for developing sustainable housing in the developing world today?
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