Planet of Slums

The explosion in human population in the 20th Century altered not only the ecosystems of the planet, but marked a big transition from an agrarian lifestyle to that of an urban one. While many countries and people benefited from this urbanization it does have a downside. Mike Davis is the author or two of my favorite books, City of Quartz and Late Victorian Holocausts. These books were interesting economic and ecological analysis of Los Angeles and 19th Century Globalization. His latest article entitled “Planet of Slums” opened my eyes to an issue that has security, economic, ecological and social implications. Moreover, it questions some of the very basic assumptions about globalization and free markets. I was especially taken by the insight that Davis has about the rise of fundamentalism in these slums. The threat is not just Islamic Fundamentalism making inroads into these new communities, but also in Pentecostal Christianity. Imagine a world where Latin America, Asia and Africa are dominated by Radical Christian Fundamentalists who feel completely alienated from the political and social structures of modernity. If population dynamics is one of the forces that dominate history then this new social phonomena needs to be studied.