Informal subaltern surveillance and counter-hegemonic resistance: Towards congruence

Subaltern urbanism has emerged as a paradigm shift to trouble the orthodoxy of urban informality. Bandauko's recent article elevates this radical turn by examining the concept of ‘subaltern surveillance’ and the everyday maneuvers of street traders to confront repressive governance measures. In this commentary, I argue that the idea of subaltern surveillance holds significant promise for urban planning and geography scholarship when extended to slums and informal settlements. However, I maintain that municipal and state authorities are simultaneously learning and adapting. I therefore call on critical scholarship to constantly place informal residents and traders’ quotidian resistance strategies within the Gramscian framework of counter-hegemonic resistance to advance a transformative claim-making agenda.