Governance Lessons from Urban Informality

Abstract

We locate this issue's papers on a spectrum of radicalism. We then examine that spectrum, and the governance mechanisms described, through the lens of a significant arena of urban counter-planning: the urban informal economy. Drawing on our own research on self-organization by informal workers and settlers, as well as broader literatures, we suggest useful lessons for reinventing urban governance.

Transcending (in)formal urbanism

“…Inspired by McFarlane and Waibel (2012) that there is value in identifying the different directions in which studies of urban informality have developed, but not necessarily working within their categorisations (for reasons explained below), we argue that it will be useful to work much more explicitly across different categories of research. Today informality 'thinking' has a legitimate place in disciplines with often limited currency and attention in social scientific urban studies, with debates in, for instance, sociology (Muller 2017), design (Keswani 2018) and political science (Sarmiento & Tilly 2018) all offering useful theoretical inputs into a conversation that does more than reiterate informality as the 'place' for alternative urban research. Inspired by an earlier motivation of Roy and AlSayyad of the value of working across categories, we argue that by working across -categories and disciplines -we start to see how informal urbanism can be a catalyst for urban theorising.…”

Coproducing Urban Governance

“…Future research needs to wrestle with the challenges, and opportunities, that a normatively-informed and openended positioning offers to studies of coproduction. Wagenaar and Wood (2018) raise the problem of essentialism, and Sarmiento and Tilly (2018) warn against reification; the articles all speak, in different ways, to the highly contingent nature of coproduction. Recognition of complexity and contingency is a third underlying theme.…”

“…This context has given rise to an emergent informal tier of non-state governance actors working across and between different sectors and communities who are experimenting with alternative forms of urbanism (Brenner, Marcuse, & Mayer, 2012). The commentary in this issue by Sarmiento and Tilly (2018) offers empirical examples of some strategies used by urban informal actors in north and Latin America. Successful coproductive arrangements are often generated out of informal spaces and relationships (Fung, 2001) from the 'bottom'.…”

“…More than this, is the binary itself a useful heuristic, or a false dichotomy? Of course, as Sarmiento and Tilly (2018) suggest, different processes of coproduction operate on a spectrum, with degrees of orientation towards state actors, which they refer to as a continuum of 'radicalism'. Actors may move between modes or strategies, but they remind us that even those seeking to opt out of state-led processes often must contend with the state.…”

“…Some environmental activists viewed dominant knowledge forms with 'a general suspicion, if not outright rejection', and posed 'locally generated knowledge based in everyday life', and demonstrations in local practice, as alternatives to participation in governance. Sarmiento and Tilly (2018) show how claims to particular kinds of knowledge and identity are mobilised as a strategy to lever urban justice. Perry at al.…”