Social Inequalities In South America

As the colonies in the South flourished and the wealthy class became an apparent part in society, the evidence of inequality grew. Inequality was present in religion, labor, and everyday society. This inequality affected the South for and the rest of the North American continent, shaping society and the way of life for many years to come.

Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums, predicts the direction in which the world’s cities are headed, and how the changes in living conditions are only going to deteriorate if certain trends continue. The title of his book explains Davis’s vision for the future of cities as he feels there is enough evidence pointing towards an exponential rise in slum populations across the world’s largest cities. Additionally, he expresses his opinion on many issues regarding the rapid rise in developing cities’ slum populations, although he offers very one-sided arguments geared towards those who feel the current system is causing more problems rather than improving current conditions. This causes Davis to overlook the problems of slums as resolvable through different modes of assistance such as international aid programs. Instead, he views aid programs as the root cause of imbalance created during industrialization. Throughout the book, Davis presents information that confirms his preconceptions towards the slums. Therefore, all the evidence that is presented by him portrays confirmation bias as Davis fails to mention anything about the resolution of the problem of the growing number of slums and instead sees this problem as unavoidable. Particularly, Davis’ writing, although intended for the general population, is more geared towards critics who have similar ideas. Instead of providing the means through which the economy could be improved and the problem of slums could be resolved, it is

Cities are generators of economic life and source of changes in the world. Thereby, Jane Jacobs in her book The Death and Life of Great American Cities puts into relief the role of cities on the social and economic levels, while denouncing the disastrous consequences of urban renewal programs. To that extent, in chapters 2 and 3, she discusses "The Uses of Sidewalks”, arguing that over all people need safety and trust in their city. Therefore, first she claims the necessity of keeping streets and sidewalks safe because they are the “vital organs” of cities (29). Secondly, she argues that the functioning of cities should be organized in order to foster human interaction in which “casual public

For over the few past decades the world has witnessed a growing gap between economic classes of a community. This clear division between rich and poor has led to major discrimination in all sorts of daily life interaction, from public transportation to housing, education, work and many more. However today a new form of social and cultural discrimination is being added to the list: the gated high fenced walls communities. These communities are physically and socially excluded from the public, creating a barrier within a larger community. Gated communities are an extreme form of housing boundaries, they are an enclosed residential subdivision, privately operated. Their access

She had a medal, numerous published books, spoke at graduations, left behind a legacy, and was even a legacy. Her most famous piece of work was “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”. This book was her most influential book and is said to be the most famous book of city planning in the 20th century. The book is a critique of the urban planning policy of the time period. This planning policy was the reason for the decline in many neighborhoods in big cities throughout the entire country. As well as the reason for so many destroyed and isolated communities, particularly those of lower economic means. Jane in her book was voicing a un popular opinion and proposed a new idea. In the book Jane focused in her ideas to abolish zoning laws and to restore free markets. Jane used her home of Greenwich Village as an example of a thriving urban community that was based on the ideals of a mixture of all people, buildings, and uses. This book challenged many architect of the time as well as the entire modern development mindset that was to be used in urban planning throughout the country. Another well known Jane wrote is “The Economy of Cities”. In this book Jane incorporated her love for economics as well as her love for design and architecture. She argued that drastic economic growth comes from cities that are producing their own goods. By replacing imports Jane believes that the infrastructure, skills of workers, and production speed would increase and become beneficial to all other aspects of the major cities. Therefore with the major cities being more stable the surrounding neighborhoods would be more stable as well. Jacobs other big controversial move was when she argues that cities are more important than agriculture. Jane argues that the trade done in cities is more cost effective and beneficial than the land competition than that of the agriculture on the outskirts of the cities. Soon after Jane

Structural inequalities arise from decisions made by those that develop public policy, the political arena, and bureaucrats. For example, residential segregation, employment, and decisions regarding health care can result in poverty, lack of health care, issues with hygiene and sanitation, trash collection, lack of health education, and lack of transparency pre and post these outcomes. Nading (2014) found that Dengue Virus happens in areas of wealth and not only poor urban areas, but the majority of cases happen do happen in areas of poverty and overbuilt urbanized cities, when the wrong decisions are made based on making money. Usually these decisions circumference collecting refuge, faulty storage containers which make for the perfect storm, for mosquito breeding, when a city is only willing to pay for monthly garbage pick-up, or the lack government issued water storage containers due to budget cuts.

Poverty, or the inability to afford basic human needs, is an issue that is spread worldwide. There are people everywhere who cannot afford shelter, food, healthcare, or education. It seems easy enough to ignore the bum asking for change on the street, but it becomes near impossible in regions where whole families are begging on the street. This rings true in Latin America and it is extremely frustrating to see social inequality this extreme. This essay will examine how much poverty exists in Latin America, why the amount of poverty is so disproportionate and what can possibly be done to alleviate the amount of poverty in these countries.

In Jane Jacobs’s acclaimed The Life and Death of Great American Cities, she intricately articulates urban blight and the ills of metropolitan society by addressing several binaries throughout the course of the text. One of the more culturally significant binaries that Jacobs relies on in her narrative is the effectively paradoxical relationship between diversity and homogeneity in urban environments at the time. In particular, beginning in Chapter 12 throughout Chapter 13, Jacobs is concerned greatly with debunking widely held misconceptions about urban diversity.

Despite the negative factors of living in urban environment, there are a great number of positive sides that affect the life quality of people who live in urban cities. Perhaps, the

Jakarta’s slums and Rio De Janeiro’s favelas have a lot of things in common. Both of their governments aren’t trying to make these living conditions better. They just keep them secluded in one area away from the wealthy parts of the city. It isn’t safe nor healthy for people to be living in contaminated water or on top of one another in unsteady shacks. People from around the world come to visit these towns because they find it interesting or attractive that people are living like this, instead of trying to help them they just admire the way they are living. Still to this day nothing is being done to improve this situation. Even though people are poor they shouldn’t have to be living like this because they are humans too. Everybody should be treated and looked at equally. Sometimes food is very scarce so people have to go nights without eating anything. No one should have to live there life like

In a book ‘The Uses of Sidewalks: Safety’, by Jane Jacobs, she abstract that ‘her basic notions of what makes a neighbourhood a community and what makes a city livable’ . She stated that ‘Great Cities are not like towns, only larger. They are not like suburbs, only denser’ . In her perspective of view, the great cities are differ from towns and suburbs in basic ways, they are full of stranger. Strangers are not only common in a public assembly, it even more common

The process of people moving into cities, which is called urbanisation, was happening around the world in past decades. It causes cities to have more labourers and resources than before. This makes a big contribution to the social development of cities. Thanks to these social developments, public services are becoming better in these areas. Citizens can enjoy a better life by access these public services such as better medical care, more education resources and well-built transport. It means an equitable society can be created. An equitable society means citizens can have more opportunities to access social resources and to live a better life. This essay will argue that

Both positive and negative factors determine the quality of life in urban centers. To start with, people living in cities have a variety of choices to make regarding their everyday lives. For example, residents in urban areas have access to the various types of food which results in improved health. Additionally, different types of culture exist in cities. People learn different culture through

Many Americans believe that America has one of the most powerful economies that is involved in the global market and the best average living standards. Since the creation of the United States it has been known as the land of endless opportunities, regardless of social or economic classes. Under this philosophy, all citizens should have equal rights and given equal opportunity to progress in the workforce. However many Americans are living full lives and do not have financial obstacles to get over. Even so, millions of Americans are still faced with poor living conditions and struggle with providing for their families basic needs. Whether Americans believe poverty and inequality exist in America exists or not, the authors in three different articles:” Culture of Success” by Brink Lindsey, “A Great Time to Be Alive?” by Matt Yglesias, and “Born Poor and Smart” by Angela Locke, and “The War Against the Poor Instead of Programs to End Poverty”by Herbert J. Gans, shared ideas on how to help fix the problems of the impoverished community and address the cause of the problem. The four articles also explain different biases that the impoverish have to endure everyday.

Wirth was more interested in urbanism as a way of life rather than trying to understand the shapes of cities. He argued that urbanism cannot be simply understood by measuring population of cities. Rather, it must be understood as a form of social existence. Wirth states that cities are the “initiating and controlling centre of economic, political and cultural life that has drawn the most remote communities of the world into its orbit and woven diverse areas, people and activities into a cosmos.” (Wirth, 1938, p.342). Although Wirth recognised that in the density of social life in cities led to formation of neighbourhoods that had distinct characteristics, he insisted that the more these city areas became affected by the wider patterns of city life, the less community characteristics would survive. (Giddens and Sutton, 2013, p.211). It is clear to see that Wirth believed that urbanism, alienated people from one another, and weakened close bonds and families. Although he still recognized the advantages of urbanism which created cities full of tolerance, freedom and