WIEGO Resource Document No. 1 June 2011 Literature Survey: Informality and Planning James Duminy WIEGO Resource Documents WIEGO resource documents include WIEGO generated literature reviews, annotated bibliographies, and papers reflecting the findings from new empirical work. They provide detail to support advocacy, policy or research on specific issues. This literature survey was, compiled for the Urban Policies Programme of the policy-research net- work Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). It was commissioned under the Inclusive Cities Project and aims to complement WIEGO’s work on informality and planning curricula. About the Author: James Duminy is a Researcher with the African Centre for Cities. Publication date: June 2011 ISBN number: 978-92-95106-56-7 Please cite this publication as: Duminy, James. 2011. Literature Survey: Informality and Planning. WIEGO Resource Document No. 1. Manchester, UK: WIEGO. Published by Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) A Charitable Company Limited by Guarantee – Company No. 6273538, Registered Charity No. 1143510 WIEGO Limited 521 Royal Exchange Manchester, M2 7EN United Kingdom www.wiego.org Copyright © WIEGO. This report can be replicated for educational, organizing and policy purposes as long as the source is acknowledged. Cover photograph by: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Reportage WIEGO Resource Document No 1 Table of Contents 1. Introduction .............................................................................................................................1 1.1 The Realities of Informality and Informalization ..................................................................3 2. Methodology ............................................................................................................................9 3. General informality Literature ...................................................................................................10 4. Urban Informal Economies: General Trends and Issues ...............................................................19 4.1 The Urban Working Poor: Global Issues and Dynamics .....................................................20 4.2 Governance and Institutional Analyses of Urban Informal Economies .................................20 4.3 The Politics of Urban Informal Economies ..........................................................................24 4.4 Urban Informal Sector Policy Analysis ................................................................................26 5. Collective Organization and Unionization of Informal Labour ......................................................26 6. Analysis of Sectors in the Informal Economy .............................................................................29 6.1 Street Traders/Vendors ......................................................................................................29 6.2 Home-Based Enterprises ...................................................................................................36 6.3 Waste Pickers/Informal Recyclers ......................................................................................43 6.4 Other Sectors ....................................................................................................................50 7. Informal Transport ....................................................................................................................50 8. Informal Service Provision .......................................................................................................55 9. Informal Settlement ..................................................................................................................66 9.1 Informal Housing...............................................................................................................66 9.2 Informal Land Management and Markets ...........................................................................73 WIEGO Resource Document No 1 1. Introduction The term “informality” has attracted significant attention within recent planning literature. It is how- ever, used in different senses and contexts. As a starting point, we can distinguish several themes of usage of “informality” in planning literature. Firstly, we find the phrase “informal planning” used in the sense of planning that happens outside of formal regulatory procedures, involving personal contacts (social capital), the (strategic) cultivation of actor networks, and so on. It refers to “unofficial” modes and strategies of planning – a collection of processes that are not “formally” sanctioned or regulated as part of a predefined rule-based proce- dure (these may include quasi-legal land transfers, casual or spontaneous interactions, or informal “behind the scenes” negotiations between developmental actors). Secondly, and perhaps most commonly, “informality” is used to describe a range of behaviours and practices unfolding within cities. Occasionally the term is used as a synonym for “illegal,” but this is increasingly rare. Generally, “informality” refers to a category of income-generating, servicing or settlement practices that are relatively unregulated or uncontrolled by the state or formal institutions. For example, Tranberg Hansen and Vaa (2004:7) “consider extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities as constituting the informal city.” Others would extend this definition to encom- pass social institutions and a wider range of associational and cultural practices (see Meagher, 2007a). These activities are usually assumed to be small-scale and “survivalist,” undertaken by socio-spatially marginalized people. Thirdly, we find “informality” used in the sense of the various modalities of urban associational life – for example, authors have recognized the capacity for social capital generated through “informal social networks” to alleviate the vulnerability of poor people. Alternatively, certain modes of political engagement (i.e. communities confronting and making demands on the state through mechanisms that blur the lines between the extra-legal and formal) can also be described as “informal.” AbdouMaliq Simone (2001) is also interested in “informality,” primarily as it relates to urban asso- ciational life. He argues that as the productive capacities of African cities wane under conditions of globalization, trade liberalization and structural adjustment, space is created for the informalization of many domains of urban life. Despite efforts towards municipal strengthening and institutional devel- opment, city governance processes are becoming increasingly informalized, as formal institutions are reconfigured as contexts in which informal (business or other) ends are pursued. His conception of the informalization of associational life is linked to the production of “ephemeral” (i.e. transient) urban social formations. Finally, Ananya Roy interprets informality as “a mode of production of space defined by the territorial logic of deregulation” (2009b:8). “Informal spaces” are produced as states of exception, where “the ownership, use, and purpose of land cannot be fixed and mapped according to any prescribed set of regulations or the law” (ibid.). Planning, as presently conceived, cannot solve the contemporary urban crisis in parts of the global South, as it is implicated in the creation of that crisis via the desig- nation of certain activities as “authorized,” and others as “unauthorized.” Planning as a formal state activity is itself a process of exception and ambiguity. 1 WIEGO Resource Document No 1 Sometimes more than one of these uses are employed. Friedmann (2005:194) talks about “planning cultures” in various countries being characterized by a degree of “informality,” but at the same time describes informality as “a category of activity that results from the interweaving of the formal and informal and of the informal legal and the illegal and criminal.” AbdouMaliq Simone also talks about African cities undergoing an informalization of the relationships between and among states and citi- zens, which is linked to rapid urban growth and its attendant consequences: massive growth of the informal sector and informal settlements. Many extant debates surround urbanization, urban theory and informality within recent planning lit- erature. A popular theme of critical discussion surrounds the general veracity and analytical potential of the formal/informal conceptual dichotomy, broad generalized definitions of informality, as well as commonplace assumptions regarding the generation and operation of informality (i.e. why and how it exists). Some of these discursive currents are summarized below: • Definitions of informality most often point to those activities that do not closely follow the law (for ex- ample, not paying taxes) or institutionalized planning regulations. However, in some countries such as Zimbabwe, businesses in home industries and the informal sector are supposed to pay taxes, although this may not happen for various reasons (Kamete, in Tranberg Hansen and Vaa, 2004). • Werna (2001) criticizes the problematic tendency to equate the informal economic sector with small-scale production and informal settlements, and to treat it as homogeneous. Many small- scale enterprises follow governmental regulations precisely, and medium- to large-scale busi- nesses may exemplify a degree of informality (e.g. the construction sector). The equation of the informal sector with informal settlements is undermined by