贫民窟(slum)

人口高度密集的低等住宅区，通常位在都市之内，且有卫生不佳、社会失序的现象。19世纪欧洲快速的工业化导致人口的快速成长，也使得劳工阶级被迫集中在过度拥挤、简陋的集合住宅。英国最先通过法律建造低收入住宅给符合标准者居住，也最先通过法律强迫拆除贫民窟。在美国，贫民窟正是随着19世纪末到20世纪初大量移民潮的到来而出现，美国也在1800年晚期通过法律，规定都市住宅必须维持适当的空气流动、火灾防制、卫生环境。在20世纪，政府和私人机构开始建造低收入住宅，并提拨基金进行都市更新，同时提供低利贷款给购屋者。另外，有些破旧社区（shantytowns）在发展中国家的都市中心经常可见，原因是吸纳了许多由涌进都市谋职的乡村移民，这也是另一种类型贫民窟，但至今仍无良善的解决方法。

English version：

slum

Densely populated area of substandard housing, usually in a city, characterized by unsanitary conditions and social disorganization. Rapid industrialization in 19th-century Europe was accompanied by rapid population growth and the concentration of working-class people in overcrowded, poorly built housing. England passed the first legislation for building low-income housing to certain minimum standards in 1851; laws for slum clearance were first enacted in 1868. In the U.S., slum development coincided with the arrival of large numbers of immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th century; laws concerning adequate ventilation, fire protection, and sanitation in urban housing were passed in the late 1800s. In the 20th century, government and private organizations built low-income housing and appropriated funds for urban renewal and offered low-interest home loans. Shantytowns, which often grow up around urban centers in developing countries as rural populations migrate to the cities in search of employment, are one sort of slum for which alleviating measures have yet to be successfully introduced. See also urban planning.