Document 33-5: JONAS BENDIKSEN, “New Settlement”: a Slum in Caracas, Venezuela (ca. 2007)

Life at the Margins of the Modern City

In 2011, more than one billion people on earth lived in areas defined as slums. These often massive clusters of makeshift housing sprung up around major urban centers in various world regions to accommodate migrants, refugees, foreign workers, and others who are unable to afford safer and more stable accommodations. While slums have been a feature of urban environments throughout the modern era, contemporary slums are both much larger and much less permanent than their historical counterparts. Slums in the twenty-first century operate outside or on the margins of regular urban infrastructures; sanitation, health care, crime prevention, and other services are usually absent, and slum populations are often only informally connected to the networks of commerce and government that structure other urban areas and populations. The photograph here shows a makeshift slum structure in Caracas, Venezuela.

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© Jonas Bendiksen, Magnum Photos.

READING AND DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

  1. What buildings are featured in this photograph? What is the effect of presenting these buildings together?
  2. What does the lack of walls and the visibility of furniture and other possessions imply about the lives of the people living in this dwelling?
  3. The figures in the foreground appear to be playing or dancing. Are their actions or attitudes surprising, given the context? Explain.