Urban Informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South AsiaNezar AlSayyad, Ananya Roy The turn of the century has been a moment of rapid urbanization. Much of this urban growth is taking place in the cities of the developing world and much of it in informal settlements. This book presents cutting-edge research from various world regions to demonstrate these trends. The contributions reveal that informal housing is no longer the domain of the urban poor; rather it is a significant zone of transactions for the middle-class and even transnational elites. Indeed, the book presents a rich view of 'urban informality' as a system of regulations and norms that governs the use of space and makes possible new forms of social and political power. The book is organized as a 'transnational' endeavor. It brings together three regional domains of research—the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia—that are rarely in conversation with one another. It also unsettles the hierarchy of development and underdevelopment by looking at some First World processes of informality through a Third World research lens. |
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activities agricultural land American Arab Bayat Bedouin Beer-Sheva Cairo and Alexandria Calcutta Castells Colombia colonias context countries created culture Djanira dwelling economic Egypt emerged employment ethnic ethnocracy ethnocratic exformal favelas Figure formal global Greater Cairo groups Haganah Hernando De Soto illegal informal areas informal housing informal sector informal settlements informal-sector International Israel Jewish Karachi labor Latin America liberalization lives ment Mexico Middle East mobility municipal Mystery of Capital Myth of Marginality Negev neoliberal Operation Sunshine organizations ownership percent planning political population poverty production quiet encroachment regime region residents resistance Rio de Janeiro role self-help slum social Soto Soto's space spatial squatter settlement strategy street structural subdivisions Texas Colonias Third World tion transnational United University Press urban informality urban poor West Bengal workers York