For the first time in history, more people live in cities than in the countryside. And one in every three urban residents lives in a slum, in housing constructed of cheap or found materials, plywood, plastic tarpaulin, corrugated tin, mud and wattle, and scrap metal. Dispossessed relates stories about people living on the fringes of Manila, Nairobi, Mexico City, Bangkok, and Cairo. Slum residents talk about their fears and their struggles, as well as their hopes and joys. Dispossessed also explores the complex causes of our world’s rapid urbanization and its affects on poor nations and cities in the global South, and it describes solutions to poverty and insecurity that some local residents and agencies are pursuing.

by Mark Kramer

January 2006

Orbis Books, Maryknoll, NY

232 pages, photos

ISBN: 1-57075-658-9

Purchase Dispossessed at amazon.com. For international orders: In Europe, order Dispossessed through Alban Books, Ltd. (Tel: 0-131-226-2217, fax: 0-131-225-5999, sales@albanbooks.com, www.albanbooks.com) In Canada, order Dispossessed through Bayard Distribution (Novalis), (Tel: 1-800-313-3020 x233, fax: 1-877-278-3087, tradebooks@bayard-inc.com)