In recent years informality has been defined and re-defined in the context of urban development. Evolving from initially being understood as a ‘sector’ of the economy to currently being redefined as a ‘new way of life’, ‘informality’ has become a rather ambiguous term. According to our understanding, many of the current concepts of informality do not capture the complexity and importance of connectivity between sectors, levels, and actors. In particular, they neglect the importance of power relations and the blurriness of constantly negotiated and readjusted boundaries between the acceptable and the non-acceptable, legal and non-legal. In this article, we question the usefulness of the term ‘informality’ and instead propose a set of parameters in order to describe negotiation processes inherent to the term ‘informality’. We suggest a model that tries to avoid the ambiguity of the informality debate. It offers a tool to understand the typically composite pattern of actors and their interplay regarding the three dimensions: power, legitimacy, and resources.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Herrle et al. (2011) studied this question.