Reconsidering Informality

Africa's future will be increasingly urban, and the inherited legal, institutional and financial arrangements for managing urban development are inadequate. Access to employment, shelter and services is precarious for most urban residents. The result is the phenomenal growth of the informal city. Extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities proliferate and basic urban services are increasingly provided informally. The recent decades of neo-liberal political and economic reforms have increased social inequality across urban space. A central theme of the title is how practices that from an official standpoint are seen to be illegal or extra-legal - not only function - but are considered legitimate by the actors concerned.