Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia

by Ananya Roy (Editor)

The turn of the century has been a moment of rapid urbanization. Much of this urban growth is taking place in the cities of the developing world and much of it in informal settlements. This book presents cutting-edge research from various world regions to demonstrate these trends. The contributions reveal that informal housing is no longer the domain of the urban poor; rather it is a significant zone of transactions for the middle-class and even transnational elites. Indeed, the book presents a rich view of "urban informality" as a system of regulations and norms that governs the use of space and makes possible new forms of social and political power.

The book is organized as a "transnational" endeavor. It brings together three regional domains of research―the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia―that are rarely in conversation with one another. It also unsettles the hierarchy of development and underdevelopment by looking at some First World processes of informality through a Third World research lens.

Genres: Cities

348 pages, Paperback

First published November 19, 2003

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would teach from parts of this book. As a collection, it's inconsistent and incompletely theorized (my classmates and I couldn't figure out what constituted "informality" in the end) but the chapters on West Bengal, Israel/Palestine, and the favelas of Rio would work for teaching.

[Ritwik · Rating 3 out of 5]

a collection of some 5 star insightful and impressive bodies of work (Perlman on Rio, Bayat on globalisation), and some buzzword-filled incomplete theorisations (Roy on Calcutta, Bromley on de soto)

[Rui Da silva pinto · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this book as I was putting together some thoughts and trying to make sense of my visits to the local street markets as I noticed my city growing. A fascinating and very informative book.