Cities with 'slums' [electronic resource] : from informal settlement eradication to a right to the city in Africa / Marie Huchzermeyer.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [251]-290) and index.

Pt. 1. The urban context in the new millennium. Informal settlements, global governance and Millennium Development Goal Seven Target 11 -- Urban competitiveness or improving poor people's lives: why 'Cities Without Slums'? -- Informal settlements in the discourse on urban informality -- Pt. 2. 'Slum' eradication in action. 'Slum' elimination in Zimbabwe and Nigeria -- South Africa's drive to eradicate informal settlements by 2014 -- Flagship 'slum' eradication pilot projects: flaws and controversies in the N2 Gateway in Cape Town and Kibera-Soweto in Nairobi -- Pt. 3. The struggle against 'slum' eradication in South Africa. A new target-driven upgrading agenda: space for rights-based demands? -- A challenge to legal regression in the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-emergence of Slums Act of 2007 -- A challenge to the state's avoidance of upgrading: the Harry Gwala informal settlement -- Towards a right to the city.

"The UN's Millennium Development Target to improve the lives of 100 million 'slum' dwellers has been inappropriately communicated as a target to free cities of slums. ... [The book] traces the proliferation of this misunderstanding across several African countries, and explains how current urban policy ... encourages this interpretation. The cases it presents cover a range of conflicts between poor urban residents and the local and national authorities that seek to curtail their 'right to the city'."--Back cover.

Electronic reproduction. Palo Alto, Calif. : ebrary, 2011. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ebrary affiliated libraries.