It's disappointing to read the word 'slum' so often in this otherwise very good article, to refer to places that are where people live, are in fact homes of people. "Informal settlements" is more descriptive and there is an effort at the start of this article to use this descriptor, but then 'slums' slips in and takes over. It is the responsibility of editors to watch for this. Also the first image of "Soweto" is dreadfully generic, undated, with no photographer credited, and really a picture of a small section of informal housing. This kind of image is at best lazy, more often offensive (frankly, unrequired). Images also need care in making and in use. Again, editors - less virtue signalling, more work on responsible, descriptive, informative and less perjorative writing and use of imagery is required.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. During the editing of this article, the use of the word 'slum' did not come up. because it had been used according to its official definition and without a pejorative judgment – neither us nor the writers were aware that there have been academic discussions over its usage. We have now deleted or changed to 'informal settlements' throughout, and will review our usage of the word in all future pieces.
As for the photography, we used what was publicly available from Wikimedia Commons – due to the cost of the reporting that went into this article and the desire of spaza shop owners to remain anonymous, we made a call to go with images in the public domain. All the photos were approved by the authors beforehand, and although the picture of Soweto used is generic, it is not dissimilar to the type of housing that people who were interviewed in this piece live in. We are aware that not all of Soweto looks like this, so we have added a more precise description of the photo.
I thought the article was very interesting. I don't object to the word slum. I suspect people who live there don't either. I don't think there's any need to change anything to bacome politically correct. How about consideration of the appalling circumstances in which people living in the slums have to live rather than rattling one's saber at words?
Thanks for this piece. This is why I subscribe - food as a jumping off point into great insightful journalism.
this sort of reporting is why I subscribe, thank you
It's disappointing to read the word 'slum' so often in this otherwise very good article, to refer to places that are where people live, are in fact homes of people. "Informal settlements" is more descriptive and there is an effort at the start of this article to use this descriptor, but then 'slums' slips in and takes over. It is the responsibility of editors to watch for this. Also the first image of "Soweto" is dreadfully generic, undated, with no photographer credited, and really a picture of a small section of informal housing. This kind of image is at best lazy, more often offensive (frankly, unrequired). Images also need care in making and in use. Again, editors - less virtue signalling, more work on responsible, descriptive, informative and less perjorative writing and use of imagery is required.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment. During the editing of this article, the use of the word 'slum' did not come up. because it had been used according to its official definition and without a pejorative judgment – neither us nor the writers were aware that there have been academic discussions over its usage. We have now deleted or changed to 'informal settlements' throughout, and will review our usage of the word in all future pieces.
As for the photography, we used what was publicly available from Wikimedia Commons – due to the cost of the reporting that went into this article and the desire of spaza shop owners to remain anonymous, we made a call to go with images in the public domain. All the photos were approved by the authors beforehand, and although the picture of Soweto used is generic, it is not dissimilar to the type of housing that people who were interviewed in this piece live in. We are aware that not all of Soweto looks like this, so we have added a more precise description of the photo.
I thought the article was very interesting. I don't object to the word slum. I suspect people who live there don't either. I don't think there's any need to change anything to bacome politically correct. How about consideration of the appalling circumstances in which people living in the slums have to live rather than rattling one's saber at words?