Abstract: | The integration of the individual into city life, through employment, a decent home and access to education and culture, remains a permanent quest - and often an inaccessible dream - for a large number of town people. This inability of the city to offer adequate facilities for the major part of its inhabitants is particularly acute in most of the large metropolises of the Third World. The basic problems of the cities in the developing countries cannot be stated in terms of conflicts between collective and individual interests in the matter of housing, employment, transport and facilities, but rather in terms of marginalization i.e. exclusion of a more or less large proportion of the town dwellers from the urban way of life. Factors contributing to this situation are: Rural migration and lack of employment - The employment crisis - Money economy and the proliferation of forms of under integrated housing - Diversity of materials - the role of rural traditions and ancient urbanization - The crystallization of the relationship between city and countryside - Political factors. Notes. |