Forms of informality: Morphology and visibility of informal settlements

Abstract

Informal settlements are urban neighbourhoods or districts that develop and operate without the formal control of the state, co-existing but not synonymous with 'squatter' settlements and 'slums'. The proliferation and resilience of such settlements has been phenomenal and half a century of state intervention has failed to halt their growth. They are so economically, spatially and socially integrated with their urban contexts that most developing cities are unsustainable without them, yet the desire to remove them persists and is linked to issues of urban imagery and place identity. In this paper we first analyze the predominant morphological types characterized by their typical infiltration..