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- Convenors:
-
Martina Manara
(University College London UCL)
Graeme Young (University of Glasgow)
Alice Sverdlik (University of Manchester)
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- Format:
- Paper panel
Short Abstract:
The DSA’s Urbanisation and Development Study Group calls for papers discussing urban informality as a site where we can possibly find the most acute manifestations of and the most disruptive responses to the current 'polycrisis'.
Long Abstract:
In a recent workshop on ‘New Frontiers of Urban Informality Research,’ the DSA’s Urbanisation and Development Study Group re-ignited debates on the two facets of urban informality. On the one hand, informality exemplifies and reproduces mechanisms of exclusions and inequality. On the other, it can redefine and even spark new configurations of state-society relations and power.
It is often in urban informal settlements and informal economies that we observe the most acute manifestations of the current 'polycrisis' and possibly the most disruptive responses to multiple economic and ecological vulnerabilities. For informal dwellers and workers, the effects of overlapping crises are typically exacerbated by a lack of government recognition, exclusionary power relations, and socio-economic inequalities. However, informal spaces can also enable the emergence of creative solutions in social support and mobilisation, resilience and adaptation, including to challenge entrenched social, economic, and political divides.
We welcome case studies and conceptual discussions of urban informality in the face of the 'polycrisis'. Interdisciplinary academics and practitioners, from a range of geographic areas, are encouraged to apply. Possible sub-themes of interest may include, but are not limited to, the following:
• Innovative forms of collective action in urban areas (e.g. informal revenue mobilisation and shelter co-production)
• Forms of political engagement by informal workers or residents and related claims-making upon the state (including progressive, populist, and other forms of mobilisation)
• Climate change and informality (e.g., impacts, responses, and action-research priorities)
• Community-led data collection and research methods to document the 'polycrisis' and inform policy