Literally speaking, a ghetto is a city section where people are forced to live based on social, economic or political factors, or as influenced through legal intervention. Usually ghettos are associated with inferior status and limited opportunity while colloquially, people tend to use the term to describe low-class or poor neighbourhoods. Some people also equate ghetto life with dangerous and unsafe living conditions or high crime rates.
The word ghetto originated in Venice, Italy and was applied to the region of the city where a large number of Jewish residents were compelled to live. In World War II, its usage increased after Nazi Germany began using historic ghettos as transfer points for captured Jewish people who were being taken to concentration and death camps.
Today, it has evolved to encompass all circumstances in which a minority occupies the majority of a poverty-stricken region, either by will, by force, or by an absence of available options. At least this is the technical definition of ghetto.
Another term has been born of the word ghetto: Hyperghettoisation. This term applies to abysmally destitute, densely populated neighbourhoods and regions where living conditions are so poor that the quality of life is in a constant state of deterioration. Areas suffering from hyperghettoisation often experience high unemployment and low graduation rates. Thus the cycle of poverty continues, oftentimes to such an extent that it has a clear effect on the municipal, provincial and even national economies.
Socially and casually however, ghetto can be taken to mean one of a number of things. It can reference poverty and a low standard of life, crime, the inner city, or anything of shoddy or haphazard construction. Furthermore, some people tend to exaggerate the term and use it very loosely. In such instances, ghetto can mean anything from cheap to ugly to thuggish.
The word ghetto originated in Venice, Italy and was applied to the region of the city where a large number of Jewish residents were compelled to live. In World War II, its usage increased after Nazi Germany began using historic ghettos as transfer points for captured Jewish people who were being taken to concentration and death camps.
Today, it has evolved to encompass all circumstances in which a minority occupies the majority of a poverty-stricken region, either by will, by force, or by an absence of available options. At least this is the technical definition of ghetto.
Another term has been born of the word ghetto: Hyperghettoisation. This term applies to abysmally destitute, densely populated neighbourhoods and regions where living conditions are so poor that the quality of life is in a constant state of deterioration. Areas suffering from hyperghettoisation often experience high unemployment and low graduation rates. Thus the cycle of poverty continues, oftentimes to such an extent that it has a clear effect on the municipal, provincial and even national economies.
Socially and casually however, ghetto can be taken to mean one of a number of things. It can reference poverty and a low standard of life, crime, the inner city, or anything of shoddy or haphazard construction. Furthermore, some people tend to exaggerate the term and use it very loosely. In such instances, ghetto can mean anything from cheap to ugly to thuggish.
