part one
The Formal and the Informal: A Tangled Relationship Formal
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1a: belonging to or constituting the form or essence of a thing b: relating to or involving the outward form, structure, relationships, or arrangement of elements rather than content 2a: following or according with established form, custom, or rule b: done in due or lawful form 3a: characterized by punctilious respect for form b: rigidly ceremonious 4: having the appearance without the substance Informal 1: marked by the absence of formality or ceremony 2: characteristic of or appropriate to ordinary, casual, or familiar use —Webster Dictionary, 10th edition
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Informality It is a behavior, a procedure and the result of a process whether formal or otherwise. It is a system that includes tangled informal practices on the level of individuals, groups and institutions that are involved in an oppressed relationship with the formal system. The informal system emerges in order to fill a vacuum resulting from the failure and inefficiency of the formal system. Informality is a pattern of behavior deemed alien by the formal system due in its methods. But in spite of all that may be said, the formal system cannot dispense with the informal sector in the modern society. Even within the informal system, there are varying degrees of informality. Systems can be informal not only in their relation to the formal system, but also in their relation with other informal systems. There is a space where the formal merges with the informal. This space is where the principal rules of the informal structure are generated. We can look at the informal system as an attempt to adapt with the imposed formality. We need to develop methods of analysis and intervention that are more flexible to deal with informal conditions.
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The formal and the informal have become inseparable, often depending on one another, and in some cases it is difficult to distinguish between them. Therefore, we need to go beyond the perception that they are two poles of a dialectic relation. Breaking with the traditional boundary between the formal and the informal is the way to integrate spaces that have long been isolated from each other, as well as creating suitable social conditions to reevaluate public spaces and to allow the emergence of urban settlements that have better infrastructure and services. We can assume that the degree of informality in a given society can be associated to its fragility and how much it is marginalized. The Advantages of Informal Housing Areas Most attempts to provide a so-called housing for the poor in Egypt on a large scale through massive governmental housing projects failed. This was the beginning of the transition from the path of providing to that of empowering, and the spread of the collective-effort model through urban development projects, both at the level of site and services. Among the rigorous advocates of this trend was John Turner, who believed that