Mike Davis: Planet of Slums, Inequality and Megacities

Mike Davis (1946–2022), an American sociologist, historian and activist, was a key figure in the study of urbanisation and inequality, above all in the megacities of the Global South. In Planet of Slums (2006) he explores the dizzying growth of informal settlements in the big cities of the developing world and the devastating impact of urban poverty on hundreds of millions of people. His thesis is harsh: urbanisation, far from being an engine of progress, has produced an unprecedented crisis of inequality, and global and local policies have helped to expand it.

The uncontrolled growth of megacities

His main contribution is the analysis of the uncontrolled growth of the megacities of the South. In recent decades Lagos, Mumbai or Mexico City have undergone explosive population growth, largely through the migration of rural populations seeking opportunity. But instead of work and a better life, many migrants end up in informal settlements — slums, favelas, shantytowns — where the lack of drinking water, sanitation or electricity is the norm. Davis reckons that more than a billion people live this way, and argues it is the most visible consequence of a global economic system that favours elites and leaves the majority behind.

Urban poverty and neoliberal policy

Davis highlights the relationship between urban poverty and social exclusion. The neoliberal policies of governments and international institutions — the structural adjustment programmes of the IMF and the World Bank in the 1980s and 1990s — worsened inequality in the cities of the South by dismantling welfare systems and cutting public investment, and left millions of people unprotected against the market, forced to survive in extremely precarious conditions. The spread of informal settlements is not an anomaly of urban development but the direct result of policies that prioritise growth at any price.

Environmental risk on the worst land

He also examines the environmental implications. Many megacities lie in regions highly vulnerable to natural disasters, floods or earthquakes, and informal settlements occupy the worst land — unstable hillsides, floodplains, contaminated ground — because it is the only land available to the poor. The lack of planning and the precariousness of housing aggravate the exposure to risk. The environmental crisis is inseparable from the urban crisis: the effects of climate change hit hardest those who live in the poorest and least protected areas.

The critique of technocratic solutions

Another crucial aspect is his critique of the lack of effective intervention by governments and international bodies. Davis acknowledges that some development programmes try to improve conditions in marginal neighbourhoods, but argues that many are insufficient or misdirected, focused on technocratic solutions — property titles, microcredit — that do not attack the structural roots of poverty. The solution demands a radical change of political and economic priorities that puts people and their needs above the profits of capital.

Planet of Slums exposes the consequences of the uncontrolled growth of megacities and of the unequal distribution of resources. Its approach invites reflection on the dynamics that perpetuate inequality and environmental crisis in cities, and a change in the global policies that produce the structural problems affecting millions of people. Two decades after its publication, the figures Davis worked with have kept growing.