Caroline Skinner, Vanessa Watson

Keywords： Informal Economy; Planning; Informality; Development Study; Global South

Abstract：

The informal economy is a significant component of urban economy in global south. Comparing with the field of economic policies, there are few studies focusing on how to support informal economy through policies nowadays in the field of urban planning. In the context of planning as the central tool to regulate and marginalize informal economy, reconsidering informal economy from the aspect of spatial planning is important. The paper firstly describes the scale, the categories and the contribution to the urban economy’s growth of informal economy through data. Second, series differential theories and policies towards informal economy are reviewed. In the third part, some cases in global south indicate that some cities provide the proper livelihood for the informal economy through transforming the urban policies and planning strategies, including infrastructures in public spaces, home-based work and waste picker organization. Finally, the paper holds the view that the planners need to improve the planning method facing informal economy. The challenge that the gap between theory and practices of informal economy is increasing in case of regulation is still the main planning method. 

Funds：

•  [1] ABRAHAMS C. Transforming the region: supermarkets and the local food economy[J]. African Affairs, 2009, 109(434): 115-134.
  [2] ACUTO M. High-rise Dubai urban entrepreneurialism and the technology of symbolic power[J]. Cities, 2010, 27(4): 272-284.
  [3] BHAN G. The real lives of urban fantasies[J]. Environment and Urbanization, 2014, 26(1): 232-235.
  [4] BROMLEY R D F, MACKIE P K. Displacement and the new spaces for informal trade in the Latin American city centre[J]. Urban studies, 2009, 46(7): 1485-1506.
  [5] BROWN A. Claiming the streets: property rights and legal empowerment in the urban informal economy[J]. World Development, 2015, 76: 238-248.
  [6] CHEN M. The informal economy: definitions, theories and policies[R]. WIEGO Working Paper, 2012.
  [7] CRUSH J, FRAYNE B. Supermarket expansion and the informal food economy in Southern African cities: implications for urban food security[J]. Journal of Southern African Studies, 2011, 37(4): 781-807.
  [8] DE SOTO H. The other path: the economic answer to terrorism[M]. New York: Basic Books, 2002.
  [9] DE SOTO H. The mystery of capital: why capitalism triumphs in the West and fails everywhere else[M]. Basic Civitas Books, 2000.
  [10] DIAS S . Overview of the legal framework for inclusion of informal recyclers in solid waste management in Brazil[R]. WIEGO Policy Brief (Urban Policies), 2011.
  [11] DIAS S. Waste pickers and cities[J]. Environment and Urbanization, 2016, 28(2): 375-390.
  [12] DIAS S, SAMSON M. Informal economy monitoring study sector report: waste pickers[R]. Cambridge, MA, USA: WIEGO, 2016.
  [13] DOBSON R, SKINNER C, NICHOLSON J. Working in Warwick: including street traders in urban plans[M]. School of Development Studies, University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2009.
  [14] DONOVAN M G. Informal cities and the contestation of public space: the case of Bogotá’s street vendors, 1988-2003[J]. Urban Studies, 2008, 45(1): 29-51.
  [15] ELGIN C, BIRINCI S. Growth and informality: a comprehensive panel data analysis[J]. Journal of Applied Economics, 2016, 19(2): 271-292.
  [16] FALLON P R, LUCAS R E B. The impact of financial crises on labor markets, household incomes, and poverty: a review of evidence[J]. The World Bank Research Observer, 2002, 17(1): 21-45.
  [17] GOLDMAN M. Speculative urbanism and the making of the next world city[J]. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2011, 35(3): 555-581.
  [18] HART K. Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana[J]. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1973, 11(1): 61-89.
  [19] HORN Z. No cushion to fall back on: the global economic crisis and informal workers[R]. Inclusive Cities Project, Cambridge, MA: WIEGO, 2009.
  [20] HORN Z. Coping with crises: lingering recession, rising inflation, and the informal workforce[R]. Inclusive Cities, Cambridge: WIEGO, 2011.
  [21] ILO. Women and men in the informal economy. A statistical picture[M]. ILO, 2002.
  [22] ILO. The transition from the informal to the formal economy. ILC 104/2015, Report V (2B)[M]. ILO Publications, 2015.
  [23] LINDELL I. Introduction: the changing politics of informality- collective organizing, alliances and scales of engagement[M] // LINDELL I, eds. Africa’s informal workers. Zed Books, 2010: 1-30.
  [24] LUND F, SRINIVAS S. Learning from experience: a gendered approach to social protection for workers in the informal economy[M]. ILO, 2000.
  [25] MENESES-REYES R, CABALLERO-JUáREZ J A. The right to work on the street: public space and constitutional rights[J]. Planning Theory, 2014, 13(4): 370-386.
  [26] MOSER C O N. Informal sector or petty commodity production: dualism or dependence in urban development?[J]. World Development, 1978, 6(9-10): 1041-1064.
  [27] OBINO F. Housing finance for poor working women: innovations of the self-employed women’s association in India[R]. WIEGO Policy Brief, 2013.
  [28] PERRY G E, ARIAS O, FAJNZYLBER P, et al. Informality: exit and exclusion[M]. The World Bank, 2007.
  [29] PORTER L, LOMBARD M, HUXLEY M, et al. Informality, the commons and the paradoxes for planning: concepts and debates for informality and planning[J]. Planning Theory & Practice, 2011, 12(1): 115-153.
  [30] PORTES A, CASTELLS M, BENTON L A. The informal economy: studies in advanced and less advanced countries[M]. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.
  [31] RILEY L. Operation dongosolo and the geographies of urban poverty in Malawi[J]. Journal of Southern African Studies, 2014, 40(3): 443-458.
  [32] ROEVER S. Informal economy monitoring study sector report: street vendors[R]. Cambridge, MA, USA: WIEGO, 2014.
  [33] ROY A. Urban informality: towards an epistemology of planning[J]. Journal of the American Planning Association, 2005, 71(2): 147-158.
  [34] ROY A. Why India cannot plan its cities: informality, insurgence and the idiom of urbanization[J]. Planning Theory, 2009, 8(1): 76-87.
  [35] RUSLING S. Approaches to basic service delivery for the working poor: assessing the impact of Mahila Housing Trust’s Parivartan Slum Upgrading Programme in Ahmedabad, India[R]. WIEGO Policy Brief (Urban Policies), 2010, 1.
  [36] VERGARA S E, DAMGAARD A, GOMEZ D. The efficiency of informality: quantifying greenhouse gas reductions from informal recycling in Bogotá, Colombia[J]. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 2016, 20(1): 107-119.
  [37] SRINIVAS S. Cost, risk, and labor markets: the state and sticky institutions in global production networks[J]. Indian Journal of Labour Economics, 2009, 52(4):583-605.
  [38] SRINIVAS S. Industrial welfare and the state: nation and city reconsidered[J]. Theory and Society, 39(3): 451-470.
  [39] VANEK J, CHEN M A, RAVEENDRAN G. A guide to obtaining data on types of informal workers in official statistics: Domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers[R]. WIEGO Statistical Brief, 2012.
  [40] VANEK J, CHEN M A, CARRé F, et al. Statistics on the informal economy: definitions, regional estimates and challenges[R]. WIEGO Working Paper (Statistics), 2014.
  [41] VERICK S. Giving up job search during a recession: the impact of the global financial crisis on the South African labour market[J]. Journal of African Economies, 2012, 21(3): 373-408.
  [42] WATSON V. African urban fantasies: dreams or nightmares?[J]. Environment and Urbanization, 2014, 26(1): 215-231.
  [43] YIFTACHEL O. Theoretical notes on gray cities’: the coming of urban apartheid?[J]. Planning theory, 2009, 8(1): 88-100.