This chapter introduces rough neighborhoods as a critical and multidimensional typology for rethinking human settlements in contemporary urban theory and planning practice. Dominant terms such as “slum,” “informal,” and “unplanned” have long served as blunt instruments—homogenizing diverse spatial experiences, erasing systemic injustices, and obscuring the dynamism of urban life in the margins. Drawing on over a decade of fieldwork across Southern African cities including Harare, Bloemfontein, Maseru, Cape Town, and Johannesburg, among others, the chapter conceptualizes roughness as a multidimensional condition shaped by infrastructural neglect, policy absence, socio-political exclusion, and everyday resilience. The chapter advances roughness beyond just descriptive analysis, positioning it as an important conceptual, methodological, and practical tool for urban research and intervention. It introduces three seminal frameworks: the Multidimensional Roughness Typology, which captures intersecting economic, social, psychological, infrastructural, and environmental vulnerabilities; the temporal-transitional-perpetual spectrum, highlighting the evolving temporal dynamics of urban precariousness; and roughness as method, emphasizing ethnographic, relational, and participatory epistemologies to authentically engage urban informality. These frameworks collectively offer nuanced insights into the diverse, context-specific conditions and experiences of marginalized urban communities. The chapter argues that rough neighborhoods must be recognized not just as urban anomalies or planning failures, but as integral and generative spaces of lived struggle, innovative governance, resilience-building, and democratic potential. It advocates for transformative urban praxis grounded in principles of spatial justice, epistemic equity, and inclusive, co-produced urban futures.