From Visible Informality to Splintered Informalities
Increasingly, scholarly works challenge the formal/informal dichotomy, stressing the multiple political practices of producing informality which go beyond state incapacity. In contrast, this article addresses a lack of research concerning … Continue reading
“The street is ours”: Street trading, Covid-19 and new street geographies
This collaborative and comparative paper deals with the impact of Covid-19 on the use and governance of public space and street trade in particular in two major African cities. The … Continue reading
Urban-to-rural labour transitions from the factory to the informal economy
The COVID-19 pandemic has escalated processes of labour transition from industrial work to the informal economy, which have always characterized the life of the working poor. Exploring urban-to-rural labour transitions … Continue reading
Defending Space in a Changing Urban Landscape
The processes of privatizing and commodifying collective resources that accompany recent urbanization have evoked literature that focuses on the urban commons. In the case of India, scholars emphasize that the … Continue reading
Informality in action: A relational look at informal work
We conceptualize informal work in relational terms, examining informality through the relations and interactions between and among a set of actors: capitalists, the state, organizations of informal workers, traditional trade … Continue reading
Toward street vending in post COVID-19 China
With the progress of epidemic containment, the Chinese government has relaxed its regulatory policies on street vending, hoping to help people who have lost their livelihoods and to assist in … Continue reading
Stripping back the mask: Working conditions on digital labour platforms during the COVID-19 pandemic
Digital labour platforms have been widely promoted as a solution to the unemployment crisis sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the pandemic has also highlighted the harms to gig workers—who … Continue reading
“They Sold Us Illusions”: Informality, Redevelopment, and the Politics of Limpieza in the Dominican Republic
In the capital city of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, climate change and environmental concerns are used to justify massive redevelopment projects in informal settlements located along the rivers Ozama and … Continue reading