Spaces of the poor: perspectives of cultural sciences on urban slum areas and their inhabitants

What do we know about the urban impoverished areas of the world and the living environment of its inhabitants? How did the urban poor cope with their surroundings? How did they interpret and adopt urban space in order to fight against their position at the periphery of society? This volume takes up these questions and investigates how far approaches of cultural sciences can contribute to overcome the »exoticization of the ghetto« (Loïc Wacquant) and instead to look at the heterogeneity and individuality behind the facades. It opens new perspectives for the research of poverty and inequalities that do not stop at collective categories.

1 Contents 5 lntroduction 7 A Janus-Faced Institution of Ethnoracial Closure 15 The Subalterns Speak Out 47 "... not intended for the Rich" 71 Blood in the Air 97 Outcast Vienna 1900 121 Revisiting Campbell Bunk 135 Creating the City of Delhi 147 Urban Meeting Locations of Nicaraguan Migrants in Costa Rica's Metropolitan Area and the Spatial Effects on their Social Support Networks 169 Urban Poverty and Gentrification 193 Europe's only Megacity 209 Contributors 237