The Living Conditions Diamond

An Analytical and Theoretical Framework for Understanding Slums

Bibliographic Data

ID4140386
AuthorsSumila Gulyani (The World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC, 20433, USA, corresponding author), Ellen M Bassett (0000-0002-5433-9443, Portland State University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume42
Issue9
Pages2201-2219
Publication date2010-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning A Economy and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0308-518X • E-ISSN: 1472-3409
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/a42520
OpenAlexW2049634479
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited29

What constitutes a 'slum' is much debated in the urban poverty and affordable housing literature. We argue that a focus on living conditions can help clarify this and present a framework, the living conditions diamond, for detailing living conditions and determining how the settlements we deem 'slums' compare with each other and with nonslum settlements. The diamond distils living conditions into four dimensions: (i) tenure, (ii) infrastructure, (iii) unit quality, and (iv) neighbourhood and location. This framework depicts conditions in graphic terms enabling comparison of conditions within and across cities. The diamond moves us beyond the notion that slums are homogeneously poor in quality, and facilitates analyses that can reveal why they differ. Settlements in Nairobi, Kenya and Dakar, Senegal are compared

Archaeology · Diamond · Diamond model · Economic growth · Economics · Environmental planning · Geography · Human settlement · Informal settlements · Political science · Population · Poverty · Slum · Sociology · Standard of living · Demography · Land Rights and Reforms · Law · Mathematics · Urban and Rural Development Challenges · Urban Planning and Governance

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