The Urban Poor in Latin America

Front Cover
World Bank Publications, 2005 - 266 pages
The urbanization of Latin America has also lead to the urbanization of its poor. Today about half of the region's poor live in cities. Yet the phenomenon of urban poverty is not one that is well studied or well understood and policy makers across Latin America are increasingly interested in policy advice on how to design programs and policies to tackle poverty. 'Urban Poor in Latin America' argues that the causes of poverty, the nature of deprivation, and the policy levers to fight poverty are to a large extent site-specific. As such, the book looks at strategies to assist the urban poor in making the most of the opportunities offered by cities (deeper labor markets, better amenities and services, greater freedom, and possibly less discrimination) while helping them cope with the negative externalities (high cost of housing and difficulty of obtaining shelter; risks to physical safety associated with pollution and environmental contamination, but also crime and violence; other congestion costs, more isolation and possibly less social capital).
 

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Page 126 - . . .the intentional use of physical force or power, threatened or actual, against oneself, another person, or against a group or community that either results in or has a high likelihood of resulting in injury, death, psychological harm, mal-development or deprivation.
Page 195 - ... of a nation, or of mankind. In the wealth of mankind, nothing is included which does not of itself answer some purpose of utility or pleasure. To an individual, anything is wealth, which, though useless in itself, enables him to claim from others a part of their stock of things useful or pleasant.
Page 194 - Urban Equity and Urban Health: Using Existing Data to Understand Inequalities in Health and Environment in Accra, Ghana and Sao Paulo, Brazil," Environment and Urbanization, April 1997, pp.
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Page 161 - Economic The commission of violent acts motivated by a desire, conscious or unconscious, for economic gain or to obtain or maintain economic power.
Page 170 - First used to explain human development (Bronfenbrenner 1977), the 'ecological model' has been used by violence researchers to elucidate the complex causes of child abuse (Belsky 1980), sexual coercion (Brown 1995), and domestic violence (Heise 1998, Ellsberg et al.
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Page 161 - Street crime; carjacking; robbery/ theft drug trafficking; kidnapping; assaults, including rape occurring dunng economic crimes. Interpersonal violence such as spouse and child abuse; sexual assault of women and children; arguments that get out of control.

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