The Liveable Life in Slums

Eicker, Neele (2021) The Liveable Life in Slums. CITIES 20.50 – Creating Habitats for the 3rd Millennium: Smart – Sustainable – Climate Neutral. Proceedings of REAL CORP 2021, 26th International Conference on Urban Development, Regional Planning and Information Society. pp. 891-895. ISSN 2521-3938

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Abstract

More than 1 billion people of the world’s urban population lives in slums. One in eight people. The locus of global poverty moves to cities, with the majority in the developing world. Low incomes, poor infrastructure and rising exclusion are just minor stimulators that contribute to a poor quality of life. Long since nations, governments and local administrations recognised the need for higher living standards for each and every citizen. The focus on creating worldwide sustainable livelihoods peaked in 2015, with the international acceptance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), followed by the New Urban Agenda (NUA) in 2016. Liveable areas became a priority and the concept of liveability evoked a new sense for sustainable improvements of human life. Still, liveability remains a complex concept that includes a variety of elements and can be measured through a set of sub-dimensions and encompasses objective indicators , as well as subjective indicators . Problematic is the fact that in most cases liveability indicator’s are measured and quantified for whole regions, rather than individual neighbourhoods, “you can live in a city that ranks high in terms of quality of living and still suffer from a low quality of life because of unfortunate personal circumstances […]” . The extent of disparity in perceptions of a liveable life is mostly limited to formal settlements, whereas in countries, as India a large proportion of the population lives in informal settlements. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the holistic approach to identify liveable life indicators within the framework of a fieldwork study in slums of Bhubaneswar (Odisha, India). The identification of indicator’s aim to act as a lever within participative slum upgrading through the formulation of a Liveable Life Index. It hypothesizes that community perceptions of a liveable life are the most influential indicators and they perform weakest in slum upgrading. The area of research is Bhubaneswar, the capital of the Indian state Odisha and centre of pilot projects of “Odisha’s Liveable Habitat Mission”. The method developed includes focus group discussions in slums of Bhubaneswar to identify liveable life indicators. Further, it includes Expert Interviews with slum upgrading experts to identify perceptions of liveable life indicators and anticpted best practices for upgrading. The study’s primary research framework enables slum upgrading strategies to be viewed from two different perspectives. Splitting perspectives is important as congruent and divers perspectivies can be analysed to transform hidden potentials into sustainable opportunities.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	liveable life, slums, upgrading, quality of life, safety
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Depositing User:	REAL CORP Administrator
Date Deposited:	06 Oct 2021 20:17
Last Modified:	17 Oct 2021 17:48
URI:	http://repository.corp.at/id/eprint/816

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