Transcending (in)formal urbanism

Abstract

In this introduction to the special issue ‘Transcending (in)formal urbanism’ we outline the important place that informal urbanism has acquired in urban theorising, and an agenda to further this standing towards an even more explicit role in defining how we research cities. We note how informality has frequently been perceived as the formal’s ‘other’ implying a necessary ‘othering’ of informality that creates dualisms between formal and informal, a localised informal and a globalising formal, or an informal resistance and a formal neoliberal control, that this special issue seeks to challenge. The introduction, and the issue, aim to prompt a dialogue across a diversity of disciplinary approa..