Informal Settlement Upgrading and the Rise of Rental Housing in São Paulo, Brazil

Rental housing was historically a minimal feature of urban informality. Now it is surging amid municipal attempts to “upgrade” informal settlements in São Paulo, Brazil. Drawing upon a mixed-methodological study of two favelas on São Paulo’s east side, we analyze how cycles of upgrading shape informal rental housing at the urban, community, block, and parcel levels, providing detailed comparative data for 2010–2020. Our findings suggest that rental housing redevelopment can increase precarity in urban living, but is an important source of low-income housing in already built-up and “consolidated” settlements where access is declining. Our study emphasizes the need for scholars, policy makers, and planners to further explore the praxis of informal renting and rental housing, which can be effective conduits for channeling public investments across consolidated informal settlements and into individual dwellings.

Through the Looking Glass: Conceptualising the Theme of Gentrification in Contemporary India

Gentrification, at high levels of granularity, reveals psycho-social, socio-economic and socio-political machinery processes that are specific to particular places. This article critically reviews existing literature to comprehend gentrification in the Indian context. Authors argue that the discord between aspirations and class relations gestates urban informality and suggests a new framework that the authors call the Triquetra of Informality. The framework proposes that interplay among urban entrepreneurialism, bourgeois mode of consumption and subaltern mobilisation are the impetus for contemporary urbanism and gentrification in India.

Invisible informality and the contribution of information modeling to data-based urban regulation

Recent studies have established the role of urban planning policies in feeding the growth of informal settlements in Brazilian cities, through the socio-spatial exclusion of low-income residents. The difficulties of reversing this exclusionary logic are due to several complex factors. A factor less discussed in Brazilian literature, which has began to draw the attention of scholars, is the invisibility of the informal city. This research assumes that it is necessary to regulate the urban form of precarious informal settlements, in order to prevent the deterioration of urban environmental quality. We highlight the importance of compiling data about their urban form and their built environment, in order to contribute to a reality-based regulatory policy for these settlements. After discussing the phenomenon of urban informality in Fortaleza, we applied a methodology that combines Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and City Information Modeling (CIM), to support the redefinition of urban rules for precarious settlements of informal origin. This procedure will reveal not only the extent of the inadequacies of the (past and current) land use and occupation codes, but will also present some potentialities of GIS and CIM to inform its redefinition.

Systematic Review of Informal Urban Economies

Amid globalization and market liberalization, urban informality has continued to grow in leaps and bounds in many parts of the world. Against this backdrop, the purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of studies conducted on urban economic informality at various geopolitical contexts to provide an update on the current state of knowledge in the urban informal economy-related research. A total number of 290 studies were sourced from various academic sources; however, a total number of 166 research papers satisfied the requirements of this review paper. The findings of this paper show that research on the urban informal economy has grown from 2000 to 2021, which is a 22-year period in which this review paper was based. The main themes of urban economic informality research depict it as a multifaceted system that is constituted by inputs, processes and outputs that have linkages with the formal economy. Based on these findings, it is recommended that more research should focus on how to integrate research on urban economic informality into the broader agenda of sustainable development.

Transcending path dependencies: Why the study of post-socialist cities needs to capitalise on the discussion on urbanisation in the South (and vice versa)

Recently, the theoretical relevance and utility of the regionalised notion of post-socialist cities have been questioned. The ensuing debate has resulted in several positions, including suggestions to drop the term entirely or to create a distinctive narrative based on the concept of a Global East, in order to position the knowledge as equal vis-a-vis discourses originating from Western power centres. This article responds to this call through efforts to transcend the dominant frames of research on post-socialist cities. However, I argue that the first step in overcoming the subaltern positioning of local knowledge is to refocus attention on previously marginalised urban phenomena, and to link the post-socialist research agenda to existing empowering discourses. The importance of creating linkages with the research originating from the South, and the potential for such joint engagements to contribute to global theory-making are discussed in the context of the study of urban informality.

Haphazard urbanisation: Urban informality, politics and power in Egypt

The Egyptian military regime of Abd al-Fattah el-Sisi has announced as part of its Vision 2030 its intention to eliminate informal urban areas. The regime has identified these areas – commonly known by the Arabic term ‘ashwa’iyyat (which means haphazard) – as a threat to the nation. The Egyptian state, however, has no clear conception of what urban informality constitutes or what exactly it is eradicating. To understand how and why the state has placed urban informality as central to its politics, I contend that we have to examine the political processes through which this uncertain yet powerful concept is produced. Urban informality, I argue, is a political intervention that is always fleeting and geographically specific in an otherwise haphazard context. Haphazard urbanisation points to the complex power struggles by a range of actors, both within and beyond the state, through which the formal and informal divide can mark urban life. In a critical reading of the first major study of informality in Egypt, I show how the urban was divided into the formal and informal through outdated laws. I detail, by engaging sources in English and Arabic, how the Egyptian state militarised urban informality from the 1990s onwards. I argue that it is through this historical framing that we must understand el-Sisi’s current war against urban informality. In turn, I argue that the regime’s attempt to eliminate informality has not resulted in greater control over what and how urban informality appears but has deepened the hazardisation of urban life.

Towards Sustainable Housing: Waste Management in Informal Settlements in Masvingo City, Zimbabwe

Urban informality is fast becoming a permanent feature in cities not only in the global South but also in the global North, hence the need to include it in the delivery systems of the city for sustainable urbanity. However informal settlements are left out in the service delivery systems of cities and this has created spatial deprivation in the city. The exclusion of urban informality is not only a denial of their right to the city but also a denial of environmental justice to these people, which also constitute unsustainable housing. Including informal settlements in the urban fabric will result in sustainable housing because the housing delivery is very important in attaining sustainable development goals. All cities therefore need to provide its services to all the city inhabitants for inclusive and sustainable city. Informal settlements demands safe and liveable spaces for their well being and the sustainability of the city. Effective waste management in informal settlements does not only reflect the inclusivity of the city but is also an important pillar for sustainable city. The research used a mixed methods approach to data collection, where both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to collect data. The research find out that informal settlements in Masvingo city are excluded from the waste collection services and this is imposing an impending danger to their lives because of life threatening environments that surround informal settlements.

COVID-19 E INFORMALIDADE URBANA: diálogos entre Moçambique e Brasil

O presente artigo investiga a questão da informalidade urbana no contexto da pandemia de COVID-19 em Moçambique e Brasil através de um diálogo entre as cidades de Pemba (Cabo Delgado) e Duque de Caxias (Rio de Janeiro), que revela a grande disparidade socioeconômica, política e conjuntural entre os dois países. A pesquisa se apoia em revisão bibliográfica e documental de produções científicas, relatórios nacionais e internacionais, dados censitários governamentais e institucionais, entrevistas informais e cobertura midiática a respeito da questão da informalidade urbana e da pandemia de COVID-19 nos dois países. O trabalho reflete sobre as condições de cumprimento das recomendações hegemônicas, centradas na OMS; apresenta cenários atuais e dados gerais;eanalisa discursos oficiais e ações governamentais no que se refere às posturas frente à pandemia.Por fim,demonstracomo a presença da informalidade urbana histórica, dadas as condições socioeconômicas e posturaserráticasdos poderes públicos,são questões determinantes para a situação da saúde pública e das vidas das populações em Moçambique e Brasil no contexto pandêmico, apontando para a necessidade de políticas públicas integradas, abrangentes, e que contemplem, também, especificidades locais.COVID-19 AND URBAN INFORMALITY: dialogues between Mozambique and BrazilAbstractThe present article investigates the urban informality in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in Mozambique and Brazil through a dialogue between the cities of Pemba (Cabo Delgado) and Duque de Caxias (Rio de Janeiro), which reveals the great socioeconomic, political and conjuncture disparity between the two countries. The research is supported by bibliographic and documentary review of scientific productions, national and international reports, government and institutional census data, informal interviews and media coverage on the issue of urban informality and the COVID-19 pandemic in both countries. The work reflects on the conditions of compliance with the hegemonic recommendations, centered on the WHO/OMS(PT); presents current scenarios and general data; and analyzes official speeches and governmental actions with regard to the attitudes to the pandemic. Finally, it demonstrates how the presence of historic urban informality, given the socioeconomic conditions and erratic postures of public authorities, are decisive for the situation of public health and the lives of populations in Mozambique and Brazil in the pandemic context, pointing to the need for integrated, comprehensive public policies that also include local specificities.Keywords: COVID-19. Informality. Mozambique. Brazil