Systematic Review of Studies on Slums (1996-2017)

Expended Abstract Introduction: With the expeditios growth of urban population in developing countries, slums as a social predicament and problem has impeded the urban management of these countries. From this viewpoint, and by doing multiple researche studies, the researchers of different courses in Iran have tried to survey the grounds of formation and growth of this phenonmenon as well as its consequences and effects. Regarding the nature of the topic, a remarkable variety is observed in the ‘statement of the problem’ and ‘methodology’. This paper systematically reviewed the field of slums in the past two decades, a critical assessment of how to face field researchers, including the geography and management was carried out as well. The systematic review method in this study provides the opportunity to conduct a descriptive and analytical survey of them with reflections, questions, methodology, theoretical framework, and other selected paper characteristics. The findings of this review show that there is no consensus about the term”slums or marginalization” in Iran, and little effort has ben made to offer a public acceptance as regards the definition. It is obvious that in the design of related issues, a quantitative approach has been to be the dominant approach of active researchers in this field. Method: The method used in the current study was a systematic review and analysis of the previous studies. Systematic reviews provide useful and concise summaries of a given subject on a particular topic, and contrary to the traditional approach to reviewing articles, such as early research, follow strict and rigorous principles. Their approach is quite systematic and their methodology is pre-designed in the systematic review protocol. Findings: The review of studies and research carried out in the slum areas suggests that most researchers believe that the informal slum and settlement in Iran and its  emergence and then expansion has been affected by the arrival of oil deposits, and especially the oil boom of the 1930s and 1340s. In this period, the injection of oil revenues led to massive changes in the life style and consumption in Iran. Subsequently, land reform was another stimulus that brought villagers into the adventures of the city-based life. Cities have become more differentiated especially from the villages by increasing the amount of services and diversity, and the place where the aspirations of more generations seemed to come. The middle class grew in these new places and farmers, peasants, and rural farmers who did not want or could not remain in their former habitat settled as newcomers to the suburbs and urban fringes. On the other hand, in the context of the studies conducted in the field of informal slums, it should be noted that, until a decade ago, there was a predominantly engineering and managerial discourse, and it insisted on solving the problems, in particular the problems of slum areas through priritizing the definition and implementation of construction projects. Engineers, being affected by their studies including implementation and evaluation, paid less attention to the views of social scientists in these areas, considering their top-down solutions to save in the challenges of living in these areas. The dominant narrative of the slums in Iran is that this type of settlement, life, and experience on the margins of the major cities of the country, without any support and social and cultural considerations, are formed in an irregular manner. The slum areas are prone to crime, and the focuse in such areas are likely to be on the formation of delinquent and distracting groups, and the best way to deal with it is to expand the urban service umbrella and to address the infrastructure problems of those areas. Subsequently, with the arrival of more sociologists, the study of the phenomenon of slums as the keywords in the social sciences became more important, and the purely physical views, based on the analysis of the status and land use, with emphasis on lexical expressions such as village-to-city migration, and theories related to intercultural matters, the social and cultural aspects of living in marginal neighborhoods were also taken into consideration. This entry has also led to a modification of the views of these neighborhoods, and many organizations and institutions active in this area have radically changed their strategies and moved to focus on addressing the basic needs of the inhabitants of these neighborhoods in a people’s empowerment strategy. Empowerment strategy has a process approach instead of a momentary view of the needs of the people, while encouraging people’s participation in various economic, consensus, and cultural activities provides them with key skills in achieving the goals, in particular the goals of success in society. On the other hand, in previous studies, the vague boundaries of the term “slum” among the words “slum”, “slum dweller”, “getto”, “ Shanty town “, “getto”, which used to be common, have not been clearly and precisely identified with current widely used terms such as “informal settlements” and “slums”, and in many cases these terms are used interchangeably. Discussion: The majority of studies have also suggested that improving the situation of slums in Iran provides a balanced service for those individuals, and it is believed that if the government improves its performance in distribution of services among neighborhoods and urban areas, most of the challenges for slum people will be resolved. In these studies, attention is not paid to the other causes of inequality in these neighborhoods, and only the weakness of the state servicing is the main factor in the formation and expansion of the physical environment of marginal neighborhoods. On the other hand, in most of these studies, the stereotypical presumption of slum and higher crime rates are accepted from the average of other urban neighborhoods, while it should be noted that it is not necessarily slum, distorted, and delinquent areas. The slum people, like other groups in the city, are faced with specific challenges and problems, and are affected by living conditions and lack many services related to infrastructure, education, and health, and there are definitely more difficulties to survive.. In general, the dominant views on slums were critically examined by the critical point of view, and the aim was to make the most important theoretical structures of these views clear and, if necessary, to provide an opportunity for revision. Ethical Considerations Funding This article has been edited from the doctoral dissertation and is subject to regulations. Since the student has been studying on a daily basis, all stages of publication have been coordinated by the supervisor, but there has not been direct financial support for the publication of this article from any organization or institution. Authors’ contributions All authors contributed in designing, running, and writing all parts of the research. Conflicts of interest The supervisor of the doctoral thesis is the author of this article and the student under his supervision has written it. The consultant professors in the treatise also contributed effectively to the authors of the paper. Acknowledgments In this article, all rights relating to references are cited and resources are carefully listed.