chapter 3

• There is social inequality within South American cities: there are major differences in living conditions such as prosperity, living conditions and health. You can measure the degree of inequality with the gini coefficient: a number between 0 and 1 that expresses income inequality in a country
•  A value of 0 means total equality and everyone has the same income; with a value of 1, there is total inequality and one person has all the income. In general, the larger a city is, the greater the inequality (see source 2). There are various causes for the inequality in South American cities.
• Because cities are economic and political centres of a region or country, they offer people many opportunities for success: trade, well-paid jobs and positions of power are mainly found here. A rich upper class layer has therefore developed. Many poor migrants are also attracted by the opportunities that the city offers
•  In general, urbanisation leads to a reduction in poverty, because there are more opportunities and facilities. Relatively speaking, therefore, there are fewer poor people in cities than in rural areas. However, this does not apply in absolute terms: 113 million poor people live in South American cities, which corresponds to 60% of all poor people in South America. Of those 113 million, 46 million are extremely poor. It is very difficult for these people to escape poverty.
• To survive in the city, it is necessary to integrate into the labour market. That is often a problem for the poor population. Poor people often have little or no education and no money for transport and childcare. Moreover, they have too few connections and employers prefer not to hire someone from a poorer neighbourhood. The differences in economic position mean that different social classes have emerged in cities, between which there is little contact. This separation of social classes is called social segregation.
• Most urban poor live in slums. Most slums are characterised by poor housing, insufficient living space and a lack of facilities such as clean drinking water and sewerage or sanitation. These slums keep growing, because many poor people migrate to the cities causing a growth in the urban population.
• Slums are mainly built from informal construction, residents have little certainty about property rights. As a result, they invest little in their homes and in infrastructure and facilities. Due to poverty, there are many street children in these neighbourhoods, and the lack of opportunities for education or jobs leads to crime and violence.
• There are many differences between slums. If residents' property rights are recognized by the municipalities, this promotes the consolidation of the neighbourhood. Residents, the municipality and NGOs often work together to develop such a neighbourhood. There are also the poor who rent one-room apartments in the city centre, for example in large tenement buildings. They have to share facilities such as water and toilets. These places to live are often temporary and offer no security of residence.
• The neighbourhoods for the middle class and the elite are strictly separated from the slums. The residents of these wealthier neighbourhoods often have walls and fences built to protect their neighbourhoods against crime. This creates a walled residential area, or a gated community. They do this not only in their residential areas, but also around parks, squares, office buildings and schools. There is then talk of spatial segregation: the highly concentrated and spatially separated living of population groups in cities or neighbourhoods
• Governments are taking various measures to reduce socio-economic differences in cities. In general, education is seen as an important means of achieving this. The number of educational institutions has expanded in recent decades and in a number of countries pupils up to and including higher education can attend school for free. Despite this, children from poor families are often still less likely to receive a good education than children from wealthy families.
• Cities are developing programs for poverty reduction. For example, the Colombian capital Bogotá has invested several billion dollars in infrastructure projects, including the construction of an extensive network of express buses that rivals the metro systems of many major cities in capacity. In addition, the municipality bought up areas around the city, built infrastructure and facilities and built homes for the poorer population
• the Bolsa Família: Families receive extra money on the condition that they send their children to school and that they participate in preventive health care, for example by having their children vaccinated. Brazil also has had the Voluntary Civil Service (Serviço Civil Voluntário, SCV) since 1996. In this programme, young people between the ages of 18 and 21 perform social work as an alternative to military service. The aim is to involve young people more in society and to give them more self-esteem.