Robert Neuwirth parle de nos "villes de l'ombre"

Berger finds poetry in the humdrum, and pragmatism in big dreams. This trilogy movingly chronicles the social dislocations and new social conglomerations of rural-to-urban migration.

Chamoiseau and Latife Tekin (below) offer evocative accounts in which squatters and street vendors are fully formed characters and participants in their own communities and political life. In Juan Goytisolo's book (also below), the street market functions as a welcoming oasis, the antithesis of a separated, elitist, regimented, rule-bound Western city.

This Durban, South Africa-based shackdwellers' group specializes in speaking truth to power.

I'm not convinced that scaling up is always good, but if any poor people's movement can operate at a global scale, SDI would be the one.

This is a consortium of NGOs from around the world promoting rights, recognition and dignity for informal workers.

Turner was the first builder/planner/architect to articulate the obvious: that squatters were creative neighborhood developers who ought to have the right to build their own communities.

This is an innovative look at a uniquely African version of globalization.

The gentle British anarchist, who died in 2010, wrote widely on planning, housing and organizing. Some of his essays can be found at The Anarchist Library.

Linklater's latest, and, sadly, last book (he died suddenly, as it was being published), started as an examination of the roots of the fiscal meltdown of 2008-2009 and morphed into a nuanced history of the power and perils of private property.