From Informal to formal or from formal to informal? (J.Larere, 2014)

IN_FORMAL TO FORMAL

To what extent is informality a mode of urbanization that criticizes the standardized ideology and planning of western cities, and how its analysis should become a source of reflexion and inspiration for architects and urban planners nowadays?

By Joséphine Larere (2014)

Under the direction of Brent Patterson, University teacher of architecture’s theory and criticism © Copyright all rights reserved

Neoliberal ideology has spread over the globe creating an

cities. To understand the construction of a city and especially

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increasingly homogeneous world, it has also radically divided

to study the process of informality, it is important to explain at

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it into two opposite realities: north and south, rich and poor,

first Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari’s Assemblage Theory.

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formal and informal. In the words of Mike Davis, “the late

According to Kim Dovey, the term assemblage suggests both

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capitalist triage of humanity has already taken place. The

a dynamic process and a diagrammatic spatiality based on

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global growth of a vast informal proletariat, moreover, is a

interconnectivities and flows between constituent parts of the

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wholly original structural development unforeseen by either

city, a socio-spatial cluster of interconnections . He defines

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classical Marxism or modernization pundits. Slums indeed

assemblage as a “multiplicity which only unity is that of co-

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challenge social theory to grasp the novelty of a true global

functioning”. This notion of cofunctioning and intersection is

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residuum lacking the strategic economic power of socialized

related to Dovey’s definition of Complex Adaptive Systems,

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labor, but massively concentrated in a shanty-town world

“where the parts are independent (unpredictable) and

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encircling the fortified enclaves of the urban rich.” Through

interdependent - the parts adapt to each other in relatively

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the last article on Dharavi in Mumbai I analyzed one precise

unpredictable ways, they organise themselves or self-

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type of informality, the slum. But it is important to “make

organise”. An important characteristic of assemblage and

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a distinction between slums and informality. A slum is a

complex adaptive system is that they merge all types of scale

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symptom of poverty; informality is a transgressive practice

in terms of spaces, institutions and forces. Therefore, the

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through which residents manage the conditions of poverty.

informal sector, which is by itself a complex assemblage, is

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There are limits to the role of architecture in this context.”

assembled to a formal city or nation in terms of political and

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In fact the practice of informality can only be understood at

economic forces that intersect with it, and in a larger scale

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an interdisciplinary level, and always connected to the formal

assembled to the whole globe. It should be understood as a

sector.

multi-scalar system of assemblage that cannot be separate

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This article will analyze the different impacts and relations

from larger scale structures: “Such multi-scalar thinking

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between formal and informal: to what extent is informality a

is inherently interdisciplinary and requires that we think

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mode of urbanization that criticizes the standardized ideology

across the fields of geography, urban planning, urban design,

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and planning of western cities, and how its analysis should

landscape and architecture — overturning any hegemony

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become a source of reflexion and inspiration for architects

between field”. Assemblage can be defined with Deleuze

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and urban planners nowadays?

and Guattari’s metaphor of the Rhizome, “a key element of

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I will first analyze the impact that informal has on formal,

assemblage thinking that resonates with informality but also

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exploring the characteristics of informality as a mode of

suggests a model of logic and knowledge acquisition opposed

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urbanization, having social impacts on inhabitants, and acting

to the classical and hierarchical ‘tree’ of knowledge (Berger,

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as a critique of western cities. In a second part, I will analyze

2004)”. The notion of rhizome doesn’t exist in western cities

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the relations that the formal sector has on the informal one.

since it cannot match with the capitalist ideology. This latter

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The last part will focus on the intersection between formal

has organized societies according to a tree structure, with the

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and informal in terms of boundaries, cohabitation, legality,

central trunk to which branches derive, these latter having

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norm and exception. It will lead to a final debate on how to

other smaller branches, (etc.). “This is treated as an image

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define the problem: “formalizing” informal settlements, or

of centralized power, or as something more than an image:

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learning from informal settlements to improve and rethink

it is a model of centralization.”

The model of centralization,

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the formal sector?

related to the hierarchical organization of western societies,

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has led to a rigid planning of cities in which each element

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that composes it is separated and closed to the others. In

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other words, “informal practices are rhizomic in contrast to

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the tree-like structures of urban regulation and planning;

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Regarding the misperception we can have about the

they involve minor adaptations and tactics in contrast to the

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terminology «informal settlements are unauthorised and

major strategies of master planning; network connectivity

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unregulated, it is misleading to see them as unplanned:

in contrast to hierarchical control.” When we analyze the

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strategies, processes, and construction are different from

informal assemblage of Dharavi slum at its urban scale, we

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formal urbanism, but are nonetheless complex and at times

understand that its multi layer urban disposition is entirely

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sophisticated.” Informal urbanism can be rather described

related to the notion of rhizome. Each element of the street is

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as a mode of urbanization that follows a particular process

connected to housings and retail elements in terms of object,

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and characteristics contrary to our knowledge about formal

space, program, merchandise, flows, private/public, interior/

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In_formality : a mode of urbanization and a critique of western cities

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exterior (…) making it impossible to define clear boundaries

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between the different programs, activities, and owners of

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each space, as everything intersect spatially, economically

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and socially. “To take an example at the urban design scale, a street is not a thing or a collection of things. The buildings, houses, shops, signs, cops, shoppers, cars, hawkers, rules,

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sidewalks, goods, trolleys, etc. all come together to become the

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street, but it is the assembled connections among them that are crucial - the relations of buildings to sidewalk to roadway;

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the flows of traffic, people and goods; the interconnections

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of public to private space, and of the street to the city. An assemblage is dynamic - it is the flows of life, traffic, goods and money that give the street its intensity and its emergent sense of place. From this view all cities and parts of cities are

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assemblages.”12 The biggest difference between an informal

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city and a formal city in terms of assemblage is not made by

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what composes both cities, since there are both composed by streets, buildings, people, food, cars, etc. It is the relations between each of their component that make the difference.

a Through this introduction on assemblage theory, the informal mode of urbanization as a rhizomic assemblage can be now

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analyzed at its urban scale through different thematic such

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as incrementalism, adaptability, resilience and sustainability.

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The absence of anterior master plans to informal settlements doesn’t mean that they are not planned and organized. For that, the method of incrementalism is primordial to the

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understanding of the process of informality. It is defined as

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the “cautious style of decision making in which changes are

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implemented gradually or in small steps.”14 The informal

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urban process is based on a multiplicity of “small acts”15

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made directly by inhabitants and that, with time, become a

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whole. “In order to do something big - to think globally and

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act globally - one starts with something small and one starts

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where it counts. Practice, then, is about making the ordinary

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special and the special more widely accessible - expanding

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the boundaries of understanding and possibility with vision

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and common sense.”16 Incrementalism is therefore at the

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opposite of formal cities developments that don’t focus on the

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process but on the result of urbanization, which is generally a repetitive and standardized master plan decided by a single elite (politics and urban planners) for the whole town. Whereas “in the informal cities of everywhere problems are solved by

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drawing on a variety of information from the multitude of small,

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relatively simple and local elements.”17 By this accumulation of small acts, a city becomes therefore a patchwork of spaces that are made by and for individual purposes in order to

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directly answer both to individual and collective needs. In that

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sense, incrementalism makes it impossible to draw and define

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a global order of informal settlements. It leads to a constant © Copyright all rights reserved

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1.The street of PV Chawl in Dharavi, Mumbai 13

urban dynamic and change: “acting in order to induce others

almost mechanical. “Formalization often standardizes private

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to act, offering impulses rather than instructions.”

space in tiny apartments that are separated from street

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networks, producing access spaces that are less flexible

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One characteristic of the informal is that of a flow, making

and productive.”

Kristy Revell defines resilience through

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the settlement constantly changing. The reason for that

the notion of metabolism: “metabolism is the rate of change;

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can be the waves of migration, the process of densification,

therefore the urban metabolism of a city can be used to

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natural disasters (for example slums are often located on

measure the rate of change within the city.” From that it can

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risky lands), etc. What is therefore interesting to investigate

be concluded that the informal, at the opposite of the formal,

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is how informal urbanism adapts to changes. “They have a

has a fast metabolism that increases its resilience, which is

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metabolism that is fast, it is fast because informality allows

directly related to its rhizomic assemblage. Revell also relates

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for rapid transformation in response to changing variables,

resilience to sustainability. For her, informal settlements are

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pressures and needs.” Adaptability is the consequence of the

sustainable in many aspects: they are walkable, they recycle,

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notion of resilience and flexibility: “resilience is the opposite

they are flexible in terms of use, adapted to the climate, etc.

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of vulnerability; it is the adaptive capacity of a system and a

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measure of the systems vulnerability to unexpected shocks

Through the notion of assemblage, incrementalism and

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and unpredictable changes (Holling, 2001).”

But in what

resilience, we now have a better understanding of the informal

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sense are informal settlements flexible? Are they flexible

mode of urbanization as a process that by definition is entirely

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because there is no other alternative? If we take the example

opposed to formal cities. These latter can be defined as victims

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of the informal settlement of the slum, and especially

of planning, a single act that have the power to rigidify a city

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Dharavi in Mumbai, the lack of space and density has made it

by applying a single order to a whole population. Planning has

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flexible through the development of multifunctional surfaces,

also led to a lack of an interdisciplinary approach in western

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minimum shelter and micro spatial practices. Inhabitants have

cities, which makes them similar to each other. This is of

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organized their neighborhoods in order to adapt to a maximum

course related to the capitalist ideology that according to Pier

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of activities in a restricted area, making the streets, the houses

Vittorio Aureli is a one-scale ideology that is not interested

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and the few public spaces intersect in terms of program and

in the particular. Indeed, being ‘universal’ and standardized,

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uses. The houses are also working places; the streets are

it goes beyond the specificity of each culture and population

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social places, extension of the houses, markets, playgrounds,

in order to adapt itself everywhere, trying to make the world

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etc. The spatial result of multifunctional surfaces can be

one single ‘whole’. Aureli’s statement is important in the

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related to what Walter Benjamin described as urban ‘porosity’

understanding of generic master planning to which Aldo Rossi

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“characterized

public/private,

has been very critical about, claiming that a general approach

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interior/exterior, old/new, sacred/profane, work/play and

could never be a solution. On the opposite, he sees the city

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permanent/transient (…)” In this case, flexibility is related to

as a constant man-made form, or “urban artifact” that grows

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the relation between spaces and programs which Dovey calls

with time. From his perspective, could we think about the

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diversity and redundancy of a system. “The characteristics of

informal as the ultimate solution? To discuss this question it

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a system that can increase its resilience to regime change are

is important to analyze informality in its social consequences.

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mostly linked to diversity and redundancy. The diversity of the

What are the social and behavior impacts of incrementalism

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system involves a diversity of possible adaptations to change.

and resilience on the inhabitants?

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by

inter-penetrations

of

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Redundancy is the capacity of the system to perform in many

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different ways - to adapt to change by moving forms, functions

Incrementalism is a method that by definition implies the

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and flows around, different parts can perform a multiplicity

participation of the individual and small communities in

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of functions. The tendency to strive for optimum efficiency of

the process of urbanization. The city is therefore made by

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the system - often the goal of formal planning - can reduce

the inhabitants’ initiative according to their direct needs.

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its resilience because it leads to a loss of redundancy.” From

This constant activeness makes the population aware of

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this citation, we understand that the reason why informal

the construction of their city; in opposition to Marx’ notion

settlements have a high resilience comes from the absence

of alienation in western citizens mentality and behavior.

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of planning. Therefore, formal cities are by definition at a very

“Alienation may be described as a condition in which men

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low level of resilience as they follow a rigid spatial and social

are dominated by forces of their own creation.”

Western

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organization, in which (and especially in modern cities) each

inhabitants have become completely passive about their

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activity of everyday life has its own space and each component

urban environment, not questioning it anymore. This passivity

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its own function, making the urban experience repetitive and

can be understood in a first part as a direct consequence of

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capitalism, planning and regulation in formal societies that

flexibility and resilience in a space, but it is also very

render difficult individuals initiatives in the construction of

interesting when related to assemblage. When we analyze

their city. In a second part, passivity can be understood in a

the assembled system of the street to the houses, shops,

psychological way with Georg Simmel’s definition of the blasé,

etc, we understand that it is the connections between these

based on urban inhabitants’ behavior in opposition to rural

parts that make the whole a community in terms of social

ones. The human mind has developed with time a defensive

interactions. Community is an assemblage by itself: “Jacobs

mechanism to resist the metropolis’ harmful aspects such as

was railing against the monofunctional, top-down, tree-like

pollution, noise, crowds, etc. It has led to the “blasé attitude”,

thinking of modernist master planning; and in pointing out the

a behavior of indifference to an urban context. But if informal

importance of sidewalk life, pedestrian connectivity, diversity

inhabitants have also developed a protective system to their

etc. she was valorising urban informality, complexity and

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environment, that in the case of slums can be the most

adaptation as integral parts of an urban assemblage. Informal

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polluted, noisy and dense, they cannot however be described

settlements and informal street markets often settle into

as “blasés”. In fact, they have to be constantly aware of their

forms of resilient yet dynamic stability.”30 For Jane Jacobs,

environment as they are making it. Henri Lefebvre claimed that

the notion of community is also made by the visibility that

western cities should become the product of their inhabitants

people have on the others. The density of informal settlements

and not only of the dominant ideology. This latter is composed

combined with the undefined boundaries between programs,

of “the principal ideas, values and morals in a given society,”

public/private and exterior/interior have led to a transparent

values and mechanisms that control a society, and which

organization where inhabitants constantly see each other. This

engender alienation when the population doesn’t question

transparency engenders therefore an indirect surveillance

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them anymore, or accepts unconsciously. Citizens must stop

that becomes a factor of community, and that also acts as

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being passive and start to get engaged to regain control of

self-regulation.

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their city by a public debate. This latter could be translated

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by giving the possibility to express ideas or complaints about

The informal mode of urbanization is important to be

the urban context without however making the ‘event’ too

understood as a critique of formal planning and western

formal, elitist, hard to access (as it can be today). It should

societies.

include whoever wants to participate, from different social classes, and from different disciplines, so it is not reduced only to politicians, economists, planners and architects. Public

Relations between formal and informal sectors

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space would be the most open and honest place to have them,

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as they would include everyone. This initiative should come

If we approach the formal/informal debate from another

from inhabitants and not necessarily from a formal organized

prospective, we have to understand how the informal is

frame, and therefore its potentiality would depend on the

a product of the formal system, and more precisely how

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participants’ number and capacity to express themselves.

“planning modalities have produced the unplannable. (…)

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Public debates as a solution can however be utopian since they

Informality must be understood not as the object of state

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can also lead to tensions, revolts and disagreement when not

regulation but rather as produced by the state itself.”31

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“framed” clearly or accessible to all. The question now would be to know, if they take place, will inhabitants of western cities

The neoliberal ideology has separated the world population into

participate, or will they just ignore them? Could a real public

two parts: a formal sector representing only a small percentage

debate work at all in a neoliberal context? If not, we can once

that however has the power, and the informal sector, a strong

more relate it to urban planning’s alienation, a fatality that is

majority produced directly by the state. Planning is the major

easier to accept than to fight. As Fredric Jameson claimed, “it

tool used by politicians to enclose the formal sector from

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is now easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine

the informal. “The planning and legal apparatus of the state

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the end of capitalism.”29

has the power to determine what is informal and what is not,

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and to determine which forms of informality will thrive and

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In informal settlements, inhabitants’ appropriation of

which will disappear.”32 But how can planning be exclusive? As

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public and private spaces has developed a strong notion of

explained earlier, as soon as one starts to plan, it defines the

community. In fact, since the inhabitants make the city, this

order and rules to be followed, leading therefore to a lack of

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later is made at a human scale. In the study case of Dharavi

flexibility and resilience. Planning is socially segregative as it

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the multifunctional street is one of the biggest community

indirectly aims to control and decide who will benefit from it.

activators. We saw earlier that multifunctionality engenders

Indeed, it is always defined by who is inside and who is outside.

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One way to understand it is gentrification: “the process of

mystification. Even if the state denies informality, it is however

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renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-

aware that it is itself the reason for it. The state often

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class or affluent people into deteriorating areas that often

postpone the debate on informality, or praises to fight for it,

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displaces poorer residents.” An alternative to gentrification

while instead, there is a neoliberal reason behind it, this last

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is the redevelopment of remote areas that is made possible by

case is happening with Dharavi Redevelopment Project in

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the power of politics to dislocate inhabitants and make profit

Mumbai. According to Harvey, we must “turn the neoliberal

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with the land they are occupying. This is currently happening

rhetoric against itself, we may reasonably ask, in whose

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in Dharavi slum where the government of Maharashtra and

particular interests is it that the state take a neoliberal stance

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local developers try to dislocate slum dwellers in order to

and in what ways have those interests used neoliberalism

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build a new business and financial district for the city. The

to benefit themselves rather than, as is claimed, everyone,

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new planning redevelopment project is obviously not aiming

everywhere?”

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slum dwellers but an elite population of Mumbai. This denial

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of current inhabitants illustrates David Harvey’s debate on

If the formal sector is responsible for the informal one,

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the ‘Right to the City’ based on the fact that the Neoliberal

formal organizations also have the power to improve the

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ideology deprives poor and informal communities from living

living conditions in informal settlements. What strategies

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inside the city, or having access to its advantages. “Informality,

should politicians, urban planners and architects adopt to

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and poverty more generally, is caused by isolation from

treat informality? Is the answer replacing it, relocating it,

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global capitalism.”

The exclusion from the city engenders

stabilizing it or only improving it with a minimum of actions?

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interdisciplinary exclusion: geographical, political, economic,

Does “treating informality” mean formalizing it? “Is informal

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juridical leading to an informal parallel sector. “In his recent

a form of transgressive architecture, or mere ‘buildings’

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work, Blomley (2004) notes that while the ownership model

that need to be replaced with ‘architecture’? Informal

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of property premised on the ‘right to exclude’ dominates, it

construction transgresses some definitions of architecture,

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is constantly challenged by those who claim the «right not to

and our engagement with it requires modes of practice that

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be excluded». These are appropriations and claims that the

transgress normalised boundaries of architectural practice

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French urbanist Henri Lefebvre (1974) termed «the right to

and ideology.”

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the city» and contrasted with «the right to property.» It is the right to the city that is at stake in urban informality.”

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Michel

The biggest challenge about working on the informal is to

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Foucault said that our cities are composed of several places

respect the way inhabitants got organized in terms of housing,

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of enclosure (the family, the school, the university, the factory,

production and businesses. This spatial organization is the

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the prison, the hospital, etc.), we can say that the formal city

result of the incrementalist process, which has been made

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by itself is a place of enclosure from the informal prospective.

possible with the active participation of the inhabitants and

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In fact, “Foucault has brilliantly analyzed the ideal project of

has led to a complex and resilient urban assemblage. “The

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these environments of enclosure: to concentrate; to distribute

challenge for architects is to enter into the complexities

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in space; to order in time; to compose a productive force

of incremental urbanism.”

But the main risk with their

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within the dimension of space-time whose effect will be

intervention is to break this whole unplanned assembled

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greater than the sum of its component forces,” a definition

organization. “Engagement with informality is in many ways

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that could be applied directly to the formal city as a whole.

quite difficult for planners. Informal spaces seem to be the

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Now from the formal prospective informality is a state of

exception to planning, lying outside its realm of control.” As

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exception, which, according to the Italian philosopher Giorgio

explained earlier with the example of Dharavi, the solution

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Agamben, is determined by sovereignty , and defined as “the

can’t be the tabula rasa followed by a rigid master plan. City

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legal possibility of suspension of law” and located on the limit

planning is the most common and easiest answer since it

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between political and juridical.

is, by definition, breaking and denying all particularities of

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the informal urbanization. Moreover, “instant formalisation

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But how does the state react to informality? «Informal

strategies of demolition and replacement are both undesirable

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economy is the people’s spontaneous and creative response

and unworkable for a range of reasons – economic, social,

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to the state’s incapacity to satisfy the basic needs of the

environmental and aesthetic.“ From here, we have to question

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impoverished masses.»

But is it a matter of incapacity or

the role of planners and architects. Since the answer is clearly

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denial? Is incapacity an excuse that the state uses to feel less

not to propose a defined result that would erase every single

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culpability on the fact that it is itself the cause for informality?

trace of their previous organization, how can they improve their

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This debate is related to Slavoj Zizek’s definition of ideological

living condition while keeping their actual one? “There is no

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easy answer here since the value of an architect in upgrading informal settlements must incorporate design imagination

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and innovative spatial thinking at its core and cannot be limited

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to process.”46 One role of the architect is therefore to create a balance between proposing innovative interventions and

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supervising a “process of improvement”. In this context is it

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still adapted to plan a minimum? Could we think of a planning

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strategy that could be flexible to individual needs and not only generic, or is this by definition contradictory? According to Lebbeus Woods, “slums must be analyzed by their spatial construction, the social forces that underlie their construction, and the philosophical beliefs that generate the social forces.”47 Treating informality should be defined with specific answers to community and individual needs. For that, the first step is to

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understand how the informal population lives, works, shares,

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circulates, etc; and therefore try to understand the whole as an

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assemblage in which each part cannot be separated from the

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others. This analysis is specific to the political, economic and

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geographical situation in which the informal community takes

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place. The second step would be to list what they are lacking (space, privacy, basic services, security, etc.) by organizing a

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public debate directly with the inhabitants. Working for the

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informal sector means before all working and including them

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in the process. The Alliance is an NGO in Mumbai that actively encourages the participation of slum dwellers to improve their living environment. “They have organized around land

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tenure, housing rights, and urban services for slum dwellers.

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The Alliance encourages the poor to design and conduct their

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own census. It also holds housing festivals and toilet festivals

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where the poor design their own model homes and model public toilets and where these designs are then passed on to professionals.”48 This can be related to De Soto’s idea of “helping the poor help themselves. This celebration of self-help

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obscures the role of the state and even renders it unnecessary.

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As Jessop (2002) argues, at a moment of neoliberalism, when states are pursuing austerity policies, such models of neo-

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communitarianism legitimate the agenda of privatization.”49

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Since planning is by definition not appropriate to informality,

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new methods and models must be thought, models that

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could answer properly to a complex urban environment. One

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answer would be, like Prasanna Desai Architects in India, to

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make small interventions on each dwelling in order to keep the general organization but improving it or readapting it in terms of size, security or spatial qualities: “some dwellings

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are replaced and others renovated with only minor adaptation

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to building footprint.”50 Another answer, which is used for

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example by Urban Think Tank Studio in Caracas, would be to improve the conditions of a neighborhood or community by making one public intervention, public space or public equipment that would create new events for the inhabitants. © Copyright all rights reserved

2. CCASM Music Factory, Caracas Urban Think Tank Studio53

This last method is related to Rossi’s definition of the locus,

process can create internal conflicts and pressure. “It seems

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which is the relationship between a precise location and its

that formalization creates pressure on the poorest favela

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buildings, and characterized by spatial and temporal features

residents, who are often unable to make regular payments for

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that have made it the site for a succession of past and present

the new services, leading to their displacement (Guimaraes,

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events. “The locus must be understood as a concept aimed

2002).”

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directly at countering the processes of capitalist integration.”

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If we now approach the informal debate on a more global perspective, it is important to remember that informality

Intersections between the formal and the informal sector : boundaries, cohabitation, legality, norm and exception

cannot be treated only by architects, planners and inhabitants.

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In fact, the most important would be to recognize at first their

The aim of the following part is to understand the intersection

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right to the city, a decision that is mainly in the hand of the

between formal and informal. This intersection exists in

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state. For that, it is important to remember that informality

terms of space, economy, labor, law, (etc.) and can be source

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is an assemblage that cannot be understood without the

of conflicts and redefinition of the norms.

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formal state and apparatus that produced it. Until now, we

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discussed the risks of replacing an informal settlement by a

Firstly, I am going to analyze different types of intersection

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master planning approach, then the process and methods that

through the notion of metamorphoses, which according to

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architects can adopt to improve locally their living conditions,

Kim Dovey and Ross King, is a direct consequence of the

but we haven’t mentioned yet the possibility of relocating

assemblage. “Assemblage is a multiplicity of constant folding,

A

informal settlements and the consequences it can engender.

unfolding, refolding. Because the city is an assemblage, there

D

This latter is related to the process of deterritorialization.

are interstices between its ever-multiplying elements; the

w

“Deterritorialisation is the movement by which territories

destabilising, subversive, dissenting, rhizomic infiltrations into

o

are eroded (hawkers are removed, squatter settlements are

these interstices are the mechanisms of metamorphosis.”58

s

demolished, nations are invaded). Deterritorialised elements

Marina Warner explains that the metamorphose is the

a

are then recombined into new assemblages through a process

opposite of a singular identity of a place, it defines a place

h

of reterritorialisation.”54 This process can be related to the

that is in a constant change: “transitional places or places

a

absence of right to the city if the state decides to demolish

of becoming where one might detect the emergence of a

t

informal settlement within the city to relocate them on the

new urbanism, politics, and aesthetics.”

According to this

p

periphery, letting then the process of reterritorialization start.

definition, both process of formalization and informalization

p

This latter can be taken in charge by the state by offering

are metamorphoses. But where do metamorphoses take

t

them new upgraded housing, becoming therefore a more

place? In cities of the Global South, transitional spaces often

t

formal neighborhood in which the rhizomic structure will be

take place in vacant interstitial spaces of a city where formal

a

transformed into a tree-structure. But it can be on the other

urbanism is not possible for security or healthy reasons:

p

hand completely denied by the state, letting inhabitants

railways, waterfronts, flooding areas, etc. In many Third

i

incrementally reorganize a new living environment on their

Worlds countries, informal urbanization can also result from

i

own. However, in the case of the Favela program in Brazil,

the “regulatory logics of agricultural land that exist at the

i

it has been proven that “providing services on site is much

rural/urban interface: the privatization of the ejidos in Mexico

m

cheaper than relocating residents of informal settlements

(Jones & Ward, 1998); the «unmapped» land on the rural

to new housing on the periphery. Initiated in the mid 1990s

outskirts of Calcutta (Roy, 2003); the inheritance laws of Egypt

T

with financing from the InterAmerican Development Bank,

that have created thin, linear, and ultimately uncultivable

i

the favela-barrio program seeks to transform squatter

agricultural plots (Soliman, 2004); the drop off in registered

s

settlements (favelas) into officially recognized neighborhoods

land rights toward the periphery in Jakarta (Leaf, 1993).”60

t

(barrios) through physical upgrading.”55 Urban upgrading is

If informal settlements infiltrate into these particular areas,

f

however a limited process that Roy relates to the limitation

inside or at the periphery of the formal city, it is because

e

of the ideology of space. “In such policy approaches, what

inhabitants have access to transportation, and facilities from

a

is redeveloped is space, the built environment and physical

the city, and sometimes they work for the formal city. In this

r

amenities rather than people’s capacities or livelihoods.”56

case, intertwined spaces allow the development of parallel

i

The process of upgrading and formalization is not only risky in

informal economies that intersect themselves to the formal

f

terms of losing the flexible complex assemblage of informality,

one. What is interesting in the intersection between formal

s

but it can also be in terms of inhabitants’ behavior. The

and informal is the notion of nonsynchronism, defined by

s

© Copyright all rights reserved

59

©

s

Ernst Bloch in 1932 as “the phenomenon of living in a range

a

of different times at once but in the same place, where the

r

montage of new and old held potential for the emergence of

,

new hybrid meanings.”61 Taking examples to illustrate it, we

e ,

will understand different possible intersection between formal and informal. While previously we saw that both sectors can intersect in a horizontal plan when the informal infiltrates in vacant areas of the city, it exists also the case in which they intersect vertically. This latter is for example the case in Cairo, Phnom Penh and Hong Kong, where informal settlements

n

settle on buildings’ rooftops of the formal city. “A maze-

n

like system of corridors and stairs provides access to each

e

unit. Building services, typically found on the exterior of the

o

building envelope in subtropical climates, are easily extended upwards to serve rooftop units. Officially, rooftop structures are classified as ‘unauthorized building works’ and are subject to demolition at any time.”62

e

,

8

e

Another example of vertical metamorphose is the Torre David in Caracas, a new financial tower which construction was brutally interrupted in 1994 by the economic crisis that occurred in Venezuela. Since then, informal communities settled in the half-built tower and developed a whole organized and self sufficient “vertical neighborhood”, in which there are houses and small businesses. In this last example of informal

s

and formal merging, the metamorphose process has led to

a

the informalization of an original formal structure. These

s

previous examples are metamorphoses in which the starting

n

point is the formal that gradually becomes or is invaded by

e

the informal, but it is however important to remember that the opposite is also happening when informal settlements

l

are being upgraded and formalized. “Formal urbanism (urban

:

planning) is what happens to informal urbanism when it

d

is seen as a problem that needs to be fixed. In this regard

m

it is crucial to maintain a distinction between poverty and

o

e

0

3.

informality - poverty is a problem and informality is often the means by which poverty is managed by the poor.”64 The intersection between the two sectors can also be immaterial. King and Dovey are interested in the action of seeing a sector from the other one. “For the middle classes, the slums are primarily seen—if at all—from car windows,

,

fast-moving trains, corporate towers, and high-rise housing

e

enclaves, at a distance from which they may be imagined away.”67 From this perspective, informal settlements can be

s

related to Marc Augé’s definition of the non-lieu, a place that

l

is not entirely accessible because it is perceived (for example)

l

from mobile spaces (airplanes, trains, cars) in which the speed makes both mobile and immobile spaces completely separated. Therefore the perception of a place depends on © Copyright all rights reserved

3. Hong Kong Rooftops63 - Credits Stefan Canham

the gap between space and time. In the case of informality, it

a

creates a deep gap between what is seen and what exists. “The

o

exchange of gazes between classes is asymmetric—informal

t

settlements are unseen by the middle classes yet the poor

o

are often employed in the shopping malls, gated communities,

d

and corporate enclaves. The poor see the whole city while the

p

middle classes see just a part; only one half knows how the

t

other half lives and one result is a production of envy without

a

an equivalent production of compassion.”

c

68

t The intersection between formal and informal can have many

l

consequences. One of them is the conflict that metamorphoses

e

engender. In the case of Dharavi, the tension is materialized

l

by protests from slum dwellers that reject the Dharavi Redevelopment Project, because they know that only a small

T

percentage of them will benefit from it while the others will be

t

expulsed. Another cause that creates conflict is when formal

i

organizations want to act and upgrade the living conditions

i

of informal settlements with a new master plan that doesn’t

n

consider their current and personal organization of life. This

f

last case can be rejected from inhabitants since, in a certain

s

way, it means that they won’t be independent anymore and

b

“free” to take their own initiative. Upgrading is a form of

F

hierarchical control.

u

69

In some Third World countries like

India, the informal movement is so present that it becomes

m

uncontrollable by the state. In this case, “informality and

a

insurgence together undermine the possibilities of rational

o

planning, and that therefore India cannot plan its cities. (…)

o

The planning of Indian cities cannot be understood as the

“

forecasting and management of growth. Instead, urban

d

planning in India has to be understood as the management

a

of resources, particularly land, through dynamic processes of

f

informality. By informality I mean a state of deregulation, one where the ownership, use, and purpose of land cannot be fixed and mapped according to any prescribed set of regulations or the law. Indeed, here the law itself is rendered open-ended and subject to multiple interpretations and interests, the ‘law as social process’ is as idiosyncratic and arbitrary as that which is illegal (Berry, 1993; Holston, 2007).”70 4.

But what then becomes the boundary between legal and illegal? “The boundary between legal and illegal is a political one, established by the dominant to maintain their power and control (MacGaffey and Bazanguissa-Ganga, 2000: 5).”71 Roy designates the informal not as a deregulated system but as an unregulated system. In fact, she claims that informality is calculated, not a lack of regulation. “Deregulation indicates a calculated informality, one that involves purposive action and planning, and one where the seeming withdrawal of regulatory power creates a logic of resource allocation, accumulation, © Copyright all rights reserved

4. Torre David from outside65 and inside66

©

and authority. It is in this sense that informality, while a system

To conclude, this article aims to define the ideological aspects

of deregulation, can be thought of as a mode of regulation. And

of informality through different scales of interpretation, and as

this is something quite distinct from the failure of planning

a multidisciplinary sector that is assembled to the formal one.

or the absence of the state.” In a way, informality cannot be

Indeed, through the assemblage theory, informality can be

defined as legal since this status is defined by the dominant

understood as a complex and resilient mode of urbanization,

power of the lawmakers. But on the opposite, Roy supports

as a community, and as a direct product of the state (or as the

that informality is not illegal since it has its own regulation

“hidden” side of the formal sector). Both formal and informal

and discipline. Where can informality position itself? In this

sectors cannot be studied separately as they are both related

context, can it be positioned at all? “De Soto (1989) affirms

in different ways, constantly evolving and intersecting

that the informal community would rather develop their own

(spatially, economically, politically, and legally), even if the

laws and institutions, which De Soto calls the ‘system of

state often denies it. The difficulty in the formal/informal

extralegal norms’, to make up for shortcomings of the official

debate is how to approach it at first. Is informality a problem

legal system, than surrender to anarchy (De Soto, 1989: 13).”

to solve or should it be a model to learn from in the critique of

72

73

formal urban planning and organization of western societies?

To finish with, I would like to raise the notion of “norm” in

The answer is both and engenders then other debates on how

the whole formal/informal debate. If the informal sector

to act for the informal without brutally formalizing it, risking

is superior to the formal one in terms of its number of

therefore a lost of its rhizomic and resilient organization, a

inhabitants and occupied areas, what then become the

consequence that can also lead to conflicts. What becomes

norm and the exception? How should we define the problem:

the role of architects and urban planners if planning is not an

formalizing informal settlements, or learning from informal

appropriate solution? This article questions the role of formal

settlements to improve formal cities? “Informality is fast

organizations and their standardized model of thinking and

becoming the ‘norm’, the dominant mode of urbanisation.

acting, leading therefore to a strong difficulty/incapability

Formal urbanisation is the irregularity. (…) There is a need for

to deal with informality (since it is an exception of formal

urban professionals to accept that informality is in fact a new

planning), making the whole debate easier to postpone, deny

mode of urbanism, that the majority of the global population

or treat only superficially.

are now ‘informal’ rather than ‘formal’.” Are Western models 74

of planning still appropriate in a world where they address

While this article shows how fascinating and complex the

only a very small percentage of the global population?

detailed study of informal settlements can be, it is important

“How and why is it that in recent years the law has come to

to know that, when emphasized in a neoliberal context, this

designate slums as ‘nuisance’ and the residents of slums as

fascination can become part of an aestheticization of poverty,

a ‘secondary category of citizens’, those that are distinguished

when poor populations become a spectacle and attraction for

from ‘normal’, private property owning citizens?”

the others. “As the emergence of slum tourism shows, urban

75

informality can be picturesque with elements of nostalgia and a quest for authenticity, for example the canal-side informal settlements in Bangkok. It also brings elements of the sublime, the shock of the real, a spectacle of hyper-intensive urbaness and an uneasy voyeurism.”

76

This ‘fascination for

the uncommon’ shouldn’t be only spectacle or inappropriate and superficial curiosity (making the informal sector even

.

more excluded and separated from the formal one); it should on the contrary go further and activate more debate, more engagement and more innovative solutions.

6

© Copyright all rights reserved

FOOTNOTES

22 ibid.

W

23 Kim Dovey, «Informalising Architecture: the challenge of

w

1 Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, (Verso 2006)

Informal Settlements», Architectural Design Special issue: The

4

2 Kim Dovey, «Informalising Architecture: the challenge of

Architecture of Transgression Vol 83, Accessed on November

o

Informal Settlements», Architectural Design Special issue: The

2013, DOI: 10.1002/ad.1679

V

Architecture of Transgression Vol 83, Accessed on November

24 Kristy Revell, op.cit.

4

2013, DOI: 10.1002/ad.1679

25 ibid.

5

3 Ceridwen Owen, Kim Dovey & Wiryono Raharjo, «Teaching

26 From Pier Vittorio Aureli, “Living-Working: how to live

I

Informal Urbanism: Simulating Informal Settlement Practices

together” (Conference, Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris,

A

in the Design Studio», Journal of Architectural Education, 67:2,

may 15 2014).

2

214-223, Accessed 2013, DOI: 10.1080/10464883.2013.817164

27 “Karl Marx, Alienation”, School of social sciences, http://

5

4 From Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an

www.cf.ac.uk/socsi/undergraduate/introsoc/marx7.html

1

epistemology of planning», Journal of the American Planning

28

5

Association Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005)

eng/d/dominant-ideology/dominant-ideology.htm

a

5 From Kim Dovey, «Informal urbanism and complex adaptive

29 Fredric Jameson, “Future Cities”, New Left Review 21, (May–

A

assemblage», International Development Planning Review 34

June 2003)

5

(4) 2012, DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2012.23

30 Kim Dovey, «Informal urbanism and complex adaptive

h

6 Kim Dovey and Ross King, «Interstitial metamorphoses:

assemblage», International Development Planning Review 34

5

informal urbanism and the tourist gaze», Environment and

(4) 2012, DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2012.23

a

Planning D: Society and Space 2013 Volume 31, accessed 29

31 Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an epistemology

(

October 2013, DOI:10.1068/d1412

of planning», Journal of the American Planning Association

5

7 Kim Dovey, «Informal urbanism and complex adaptive

Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005)

o

assemblage», International Development Planning Review 34

32 ibid.

V

(4) 2012, DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2012.23

33 “Merriam-Webster”, http://www.merriam-webster.com/

5

8 ibid.

dictionary/gentrification

o

9 Kim Dovey and Ross King, op.cit.

34 Ananya Roy, op.cit.

V

10 Andrew Ballantyne, Deleuze & Guattari for Architects,

35 ibid.

5

(Routledge, 2007)

36 Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”,

5

11 Kim Dovey and Ross King, op.cit.

October, Vol. 59. (Winter, 1992)

i

12 Kim Dovey, op.cit.

37 Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an epistemology

P

13 Sheela Patel and Aneerudha Paul, «Re Dharavi», November

of planning», Journal of the American Planning Association

O

2010

Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005)

5

ReDharavi.pdf

38 ibid.

(

14“Business dictionary” http://www.businessdictionary.com/

39 From Giorgio Agamben, The State of Exception, (The

6

definition/incrementalism.html

University of Chicago Press, 2005)

6

15 Nabeel Hamdi, Small Changes: About the Art of Practice and

40 De Soto, The Other Path, (Basic Books, 2002)

6

the Limits of Planning in Cities, (Routledge, 2004)

41 David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism, (Oxford

I

16 ibid.

University Press, 2007)

A

17 ibid.

42 Kim Dovey, «Informalising Architecture: the challenge of

2

18 ibid.

Informal Settlements», Architectural Design Special issue: The

6

19 Kristy Revell, «Working with Informality: Increasing Resilience

Architecture of Transgression Vol 83, Accessed on November

K

in Cities of the Global South», (Presented at the 46th ISOCARP

2013, DOI: 10.1002/ad.1679

6

Congress 2010, Nairobi, Kenya)

43 ibid.

a

20 Kristy Revell, «Working with Informality: Increasing

44 From Ananya Roy, op.cit.

(

Resilience in Cities of the Global South», (Presented at the46th

45 Kim Dovey, op.cit.

6

ISOCARP Congress 2010, Nairobi, Kenya)

46 Ceridwen Owen, Kim Dovey & Wiryono Raharjo, «Teaching

D

21 Kim Dovey, «Informal urbanism and complex adaptive

Informal Urbanism: Simulating Informal Settlement Practices

2

assemblage», International Development Planning Review 34

in the Design Studio», Journal of Architectural Education, 67:2,

c

(4) 2012, DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2012.23

214-223, Accessed 2013, DOI: 10.1080/10464883.2013.817164

6

47 From Lebbeus Woods, “SLUMS: a too long story”, Lebbeus

6

http://www.sdinet.org/media/upload/documents/

© Copyright all rights reserved

“Encyclopedia

69”,

http://www.encyclopedia69.com/

©

Woods, [web blog], 29 April 2011, http://lebbeuswoods.

informal urbanism and the tourist gaze», Environment and

wordpress.com/2011/04/29/slums-a-too-long-story/

Planning D: Society and Space 2013 Volume 31, accessed 29

48 Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an epistemology

October 2013, DOI:10.1068/d1412

of planning», Journal of the American Planning Association

68 ibid.

Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005)

69 ibid.

49 ibid.

70 Ananya Roy, «Why India cannot plan its cities: Informalities,

50 Kim Dovey, «Informalising Architecture: the challenge of

Insurgence and the idiom of urbanization», Planning Theory 2009

e

Informal Settlements», Architectural Design Special issue: The

8: 76, accessed Jan 12 2009, DOI: 10.1177/1473095208099299

,

Architecture of Transgression Vol 83, Accessed on November

71 Kristy Revell, «Working with Informality: Increasing

2013, DOI: 10.1002/ad.1679

Resilience in Cities of the Global South», (Presented at the 46

51 Aldo Rossi, The Architecture of the City, In Oppositions (MIT

th ISOCARP Congress 2010, Nairobi, Kenya)

1999)

72 Ananya Roy, op.cit.

52 Pier Vittorio Aureli, The Project of Autonomy, Politics

73 Kristy Revell, «Working with Informality: Increasing Resilience

and Architecture Within and Against Capitalism, (Princeton

in Cities of the Global South», (Presented at the 46 th ISOCARP

Architectural Press, 2008)

Congress 2010, Nairobi, Kenya)

53 “Urban-Think tank”, http://www.u-tt.com/projects_CCASM.

74 ibid.

html

75 Ananya Roy, «Why India cannot plan its cities: Informalities,

54 Kim Dovey, «Informal urbanism and complex adaptive

Insurgence and the idiom of urbanization», Planning Theory 2009

assemblage», International Development Planning Review 34

8: 76, accessed Jan 12 2009, DOI: 10.1177/1473095208099299

y

(4) 2012, DOI: 10.3828/idpr.2012.23

76 Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an epistemology

n

55 Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an epistemology

of planning», Journal of the American Planning Association

of planning», Journal of the American Planning Association

Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005)

e

/

/

–

4

/

Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005) 56 Ananya Roy, «Urban informality: toward an epistemology of planning», Journal of the American Planning Association

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Vol.71 No.2, (Spring 2005) 57 ibid.

Giorgio Agamben, The State of Exception, (The University of

58 Kim Dovey and Ross King, «Interstitial metamorphoses:

Chicago Press, 2005)

informal urbanism and the tourist gaze», Environment and

Marc Augé, “Non-Lieux, Introduction à une anthropologie de la

y

Planning D: Society and Space 2013 Volume 31, accessed 29

surmodernité”, (Seuil, 1992)

n

October 2013, DOI:10.1068/d1412

Pier Vittorio Aureli, “Living-Working: how to live together”

59 Marina Warner, Fantastic Metamorphoses: other worlds

(Conference, Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, Paris, may 15th

(Oxford University Press, 2004)

2014).

60 Ananya Roy, op.cit.

Pier Vittorio Aureli, The Project of Autonomy, Politics and

61 Kim Dovey and Ross King, op.cit.

Architecture Within

62 Kim Dovey, «Informalising Architecture: the challenge of

Architectural Press, 2008)

Informal Settlements», Architectural Design Special issue: The

Andrew Ballantyne, Deleuze & Guattari for Architects,

Architecture of Transgression Vol 83, Accessed on November

(Routledge, 2007)

2013, DOI: 10.1002/ad.1679

Mike Davis, Planet of Slums, (Verso 2006)

63 Rufina Wu, Stefan Canham, Portraits from above – Hong

Gilles Deleuze, “Postscript on the Societies of Control”, October,

Kong’s informal rooftop communities, (Peperoni Books, 2009)

Vol. 59. (Winter, 1992)

64 Kim Dovey, «Informal urbanism and complex adaptive

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© Copyright all rights reserved

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