Reconsidering Informality

Reconsidering Informality PDF Author: Karen Tranberg Hansen
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171065186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book brings together two bodies of research on urban Africa that have tended to be separate, studies of urban land use and housing and studies of work and livelihoods. Africa's future will be increasingly urban, and the inherited legal, institutional and financial arrangements for managing urban development are inadequate. Access to employment, shelter and services is precarious for most urban residents. The result is the phenomenal growth of the informal city. Extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities proliferate and basic urban services are increasingly provided informally. Recent decades of neo-liberal political and economic reforms have increased social inequality across urban space. After an introductory chapter by the editors, the contributions are grouped into the following sections: - LOCALITY, PLACE, AND SPACE - ECONOMY, WORK, AND LIVELIHOODS - LAND, HOUSING, AND PLANNING The case studies are drawn from a diverse set of cities on the African continent. A central theme is how practices that from an official standpoint are illegal or extra-legal do not only work but are considered legitimate by the actors concerned. Another is how the informal city is not exclusively the domain of the poor, but also provides shelter and livelihoods for better-off segments of the urban population.

Reconsidering Informality

Reconsidering Informality PDF Author: Karen Tranberg Hansen
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171065186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book brings together two bodies of research on urban Africa that have tended to be separate, studies of urban land use and housing and studies of work and livelihoods. Africa's future will be increasingly urban, and the inherited legal, institutional and financial arrangements for managing urban development are inadequate. Access to employment, shelter and services is precarious for most urban residents. The result is the phenomenal growth of the informal city. Extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities proliferate and basic urban services are increasingly provided informally. Recent decades of neo-liberal political and economic reforms have increased social inequality across urban space. After an introductory chapter by the editors, the contributions are grouped into the following sections: - LOCALITY, PLACE, AND SPACE - ECONOMY, WORK, AND LIVELIHOODS - LAND, HOUSING, AND PLANNING The case studies are drawn from a diverse set of cities on the African continent. A central theme is how practices that from an official standpoint are illegal or extra-legal do not only work but are considered legitimate by the actors concerned. Another is how the informal city is not exclusively the domain of the poor, but also provides shelter and livelihoods for better-off segments of the urban population.

Revisiting urban informality: A positive spin on informality in planning practice

Revisiting urban informality: A positive spin on informality in planning practice PDF Author: Rangajeewa Ratnayake
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1365773825
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description
Revisiting urban informality: A positive spin on informality in planning practice is about about informality in planning practice and this is a book we have long been thinking about writing on the mode of operation of our cities. This volume attempts to understand our urban imaginaries in a different perspective. The topics discussed in this book inform us about everyday realities in our cities. Many of those realities have been unnoticed and under-researched. The book begins by looking at the a variety of approaches which have been taken by planners, sociologist and urban economics and identifies several themes relating to urban informality. Individual chapters then address a number of topics which are at the heart of the current debates.

Rethinking the Informal City

Rethinking the Informal City PDF Author: Felipe Hernández
Publisher: Berghahn Books
ISBN: 0857456075
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
Latin American cities have always been characterized by a strong tension between what is vaguely described as their formal and informal dimensions. However, the terms formal and informal refer not only to the physical aspect of cities but also to their entire socio-political fabric. Informal cities and settlements exceed the structures of order, control and homogeneity that one expects to find in a formal city; therefore the contributors to this volume - from such disciplines as architecture, urban planning, anthropology, urban design, cultural and urban studies and sociology - focus on alternative methods of analysis in order to study the phenomenon of urban informality. This book provides a thorough review of the work that is currently being carried out by scholars, practitioners and governmental institutions, in and outside Latin America, on the question of informal cities.

Hidden Potential

Hidden Potential PDF Author: Maurizio Bussolo
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464818363
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
Informality remains widespread in South Asia despite decades of economic growth. The low earnings and high vulnerability in the informal sector make this a major development issue for the region. Yet, there is no consensus on its causes and consequences, with the debate polarized between a view that informality is a problem of regulatory evasion and should be eradicated, and another that equates informality with economic exclusion. Recent advances in analyzing informality as the outcome of firm dynamics in distorted economic environments can help reconcile them. Building on these advances, the approach adopted in this volume clarifies that there are different types of informality, with different drivers and consequences. The report has four main messages that underscore the need for a multipronged strategy. First, informality in South Asia is dominated by firms that happen to be outside the purview of regulations because they are small, as opposed to those that remain small to escape regulations. Second, reforms of business regulations tend to have small direct effects on the informal sector, although they could have sizable indirect impacts on it if they succeed in removing major inefficiencies in the broader economy. Third, e-commerce platforms offer new opportunities to informal firms and workers, but many of them lack complementary skills or credit to benefit from such technologies. Fourth, a combination of contributory and non-contributory programs recognizing the heterogenous saving capacities of informal workers may be necessary to achieve more universal coverage of social insurance.

The Informal Economy Revisited

The Informal Economy Revisited PDF Author: Martha Chen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429575386
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
This landmark volume brings together leading scholars in the field to investigate recent conceptual shifts, research findings and policy debates on the informal economy as well as future challenges and directions for research and policy. Well over half of the global workforce and the vast majority of the workforce in developing countries work in the informal economy, and in countries around the world new forms of informal employment are emerging. Yet the informal workforce is not well understood, remains undervalued and is widely stigmatised. Contributors to the volume bridge a range of disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, development economics, law, political science, social policy, sociology, statistics, urban planning and design. The Informal Economy Revisited also focuses on specific groups of informal workers, including home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers, to provide a grounded insight into disciplinary debates. Ultimately, the book calls for a paradigm shift in how the informal economy is perceived to reflect the realities of informal work in the Global South, as well as the informal practices of the state and capital, not just labour. The Informal Economy Revisited is the culmination of 20 years of pioneering work by WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), a global network of researchers, development practitioners and organisations of informal workers in 90 countries. Researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and advocates will all find this book an invaluable guide to the significance and complexities of the informal economy, and its role in today’s globalised economy. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429200724, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

Rethinking Informality in Time of Crisis and Changes

Rethinking Informality in Time of Crisis and Changes PDF Author: Yu Chen (master of arts in Latin American Studies.)
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
My research reviews the current literature on cuentapropismo (self-employment) in Havana and some of the existing theories of informality. My major goal is to see how well such theories explain the Havana case. Traditional approaches to understanding the informal economy do not fit Havana, which is distinct in terms of (1) social class structure, (2) social demography, (3) the relations between the formal and informal sectors, and (4) the relations between the informal economy and globalization. My research also examines the nature of informality and entrepreneurship and argues that the former supports the latter in three ways: overexploitation, invisibility and informal social network. These three elements apply to previous state employees who quit state jobs to enter the informal sector. In a context of neoliberal reforms and the consolidation of urbanization in Latin American countries, I conclude that it is necessary to theorize the experience of these informal entrepreneurs who previously worked in the formal sector and whose human capital and expectations separate them from earlier rural-origin migrants of the 1960s.

Urban Informality

Urban Informality PDF Author: Ahmed M. Soliman
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030689883
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450

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Book Description
This professional book introduces an analytical framework of urban informality perspectives in the Middle East that is aligned with the Global South. The context of Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan—in the Middle East— is the transregional focus of this book. In these contexts, the book opens a new arena of academic discussion on the theory and practice of urban informality. Urban Informality: Experiences and Urban Sustainability Transitions in Middle East Cities questions urban informality, "as a site of transitions", interrelated and interlinked with urban sustainability transitions in speedy changes in a given environment. The book presents ‘urban informality sustainability transitions’ regarding resilience and adaptability that require shifts in urban systems. Shifts from a static process to a dynamic process that eradicates the fragmentation between the tensions, anxieties, and pressures of four modes of production, reproduction, consumptions, and distribution of goods and services in the city and its practices. Finally, through eleven chapters, the concluding remarks explore to what extent and how can urban informality transitions be sustainable.

Informality

Informality PDF Author: Guillermo Perry
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821370936
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
Analyzes informality in Latin America, exploring root causes and reasons for and implications of its growth. This book uses two distinct but complementary lenses. It concludes that reducing informality levels and overcoming the "culture of informality" will require actions to increase aggregate productivity in the economy.

The Long Shadow of Informality

The Long Shadow of Informality PDF Author: Franziska Ohnsorge
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 1464817545
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397

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Book Description
A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.

Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies

Urban Poverty and Party Populism in African Democracies PDF Author: Danielle Resnick
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107036801
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 319

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Book Description
By combining the perspectives of political elites with those of voters, this book provides a unique analysis of the dynamics of the party-voter relationship in Africa.