Why does everyone think cities can save the planet?
[Behind paywall] This article identifies and explains an underlying transition in global urban policy and discourse from the city as a sustainability problem to the city as a sustainability solution. … Continue reading
Comparative Approaches to Informal Housing Around the Globe
Comparative Approaches to Informal Housing Around the Globe brings together historians, anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists, urban planners and political activists to break new ground in the globalisation of knowledge about informal … Continue reading
Street vending and its ability to produce space
Street vending is a widespread phenomenon in the cities of the so-called developing countries. However, city planning systems have responded to the situation in a limited way, among other factors, … Continue reading
Subversive formalization
[Article behind paywall] State entities in Brazil have rolled out numerous programs to “integrate” precarious settlements into the so-called formal city of Rio de Janeiro. Two of the most visceral … Continue reading
Informal work in sub-Saharan Africa Dead end or steppingstone?
Despite rapid economic growth in recent decades, informality remains a persistent phenomenon in the labour markets of many low- and middle-income countries. A key issue in this regard concerns the … Continue reading
Informal rental housing in the South: dynamic but neglected
Informal rental housing is growing rapidly in cities of the global South. Changing needs and circumstances of diverse urban populations produce new forms of rental accommodation and landlord–tenant relations. Focusing … Continue reading
Informality, culture and governance in the global South
This paper provides an epistemological critique of informality by focusing on cultural governance in two cities of the global South, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and Dakar, Senegal. Aiming to enrich … Continue reading
Protecting the entrepreneurial poor: A human rights approach
[Article behind paywall] Half of the working poor in developing countries are informal entrepreneurs – they make a living by engaging in commercial activities in the shadow economy. A series … Continue reading
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