Broken Cities: Inside the Global Housing Crisis

Broken Cities argues that the global housing crisis is primarily due to demand rather than supply, and offers radical solutions to address the issue. The book explores the effects of the crisis across the global North and South and warns of greater crises to come if these issues are not addressed.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 462 pages
Publication date: 15 April 2020
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

Societies around the world are facing a housing crisis of unprecedented proportions, with the social consequences being profound. A lack of affordable housing has resulted in overcrowding, homelessness, broken families, and a sharp decline in fertility. In Broken Cities, Deborah Potts offers a provocative new perspective on the global housing crisis, arguing that the problem lies mainly with demand rather than supply. She shows how market-set rates of pay and incomes for vast numbers of households in the world's largest cities in the global South and North are simply too low to rent or buy any housing that is legal, planned, and decent. As the influence of free market economics has increased, the situation has worsened. Potts argues that the crisis needs radical solutions. With the world becoming increasingly urbanized, this book provides a timely and urgent account of one of the most pressing social challenges of the 21st century. Exploring the effects of the housing crisis across the global North and South, Broken Cities is a warning of the greater crises to come if these issues are not addressed.

Weight: 348g
Dimension: 135 x 215 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781786990549