Lecture 1. What is a favela? What is a slum? What are their histories? How do we interpret them?

Lecture 1 addresses a long history of slum housing in 18th and 19th century England, 20th century France, and 19th century U.S., as a frame to explain the development of favelas in Brazil from the 17th century to the present. This first lecture tackles the broad theme of urban poverty with particular reference to slums and favelas. The lecture mainly focuses on both the traditional historiography, interpretation and the philosophy of knowledge of slums. Firstly, we will learn the concept of 'urban poverty', which dates back since the beginning of history and which is deeply associated with favelas and slums.


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