Modes of Informal Urban Development: A Global Phenomenon
The concept of informality has often been misunderstood. Its, especially, urban character is rarely appreciated. With respect to urban development, it was once thought to distinguish the Global South, a … Continue reading
Addressing Informality in Cities
Informality is a key contributor to successful emerging economies while on the other hand it drives socio-spatial inequality. Understanding and addressing the dynamics of informality is therefore strategic. This policy … Continue reading
The economic effects of urban density
This paper synthesises the state of knowledge on the economic effects of density. We consider 347 estimates of density elasticities of a broad range of outcomes ranging from wages, innovation, … Continue reading
Knowing urban informalities
[Behind paywall] This article reviews three dominant ways of knowing urban informality, noting that, despite the profoundly rich insights they each provide, two critiques of the overall concept endure. These … Continue reading
Leveraging urban policy for food sovereignty and human rights
This paper considers how urban policy processes might be leveraged to contribute to the realisation of food sovereignty, “understood as the right of peoples to define their own food and … Continue reading
City-regions reconsidered
Allen J. Scott – I seek to provide an overview of the historical and geographical emergence of city-regions and to reflect on some of the debates that have arisen in … Continue reading
Fragile Cities in the Developed World: A Conceptual Framework
Cities, like any complex adaptive systems, may become increasingly fragile if not properly managed. To date, the literature has focused primarily on the examination of cities within fragile countries. This … Continue reading
Cities and Self-organization
In the contemporary city, we are today more and more witnessing different practices and processes of “re-appropriation of space”: regeneration of empty buildings, spaces of cultural production, urban gardens, green … Continue reading
Cities and the political imagination
How can we recognize the political in the city? How might urban scholars engage with forms of urban politics outside of established sites of research such as those associated with … Continue reading
