URBAN INFORMALITY IN THE GLOBAL NORTH: Masters of Urban Planning Studio 2020

Urban informality has often been linked to conditions, relations and transactions occurring in global South countries. Recent literature, however, has argued how informal activities have been persistently present in the Global North countries as well. Several academics have even pointed out the need for planning discipline to respond to issues arising from urban informalities in European and North American cities. In Australia, some scholars have documented empirical account of activities that may be considered forms of informality. This studio extends this notion, and taking Melbourne/other global north cities as site of inquiry, opens up a new frame to look at the urban condition.

Building on the knowledge and skills gained/enhanced in their first year, this studio will enable the students to examine different forms/practices of informality in Melbourne/other global north cities and identify some of the agents/forces that drive such processes. The studio will help them determine how informal practices intersect/co-function with formal rules and processes. Further, students are expected to analyze how urban planners/designers/managers ‘define’ and ‘manage’ forms/practices of informality.

Toward the end of the semester, the students will put forward proposed interventions that enhance the positive impacts and/or address issues arising from identified forms/practices of informality.

Studio Outcomes

  • Identify and engage critically with urban informality related to planning practice;
  • Conduct primary and secondary research to learn how to produce a conceptual framework
  • Identify and propose creative responses to informality and/with informality.
  • Identify and respond to ethical issues and understand the notions of justice in planning;
  • Understand the relationships between planning and society, culture, environment, space and politics;
  • Demonstrate a capacity to work efficiently and effectively
  • Have the ability to devise on strategies and timelines for completing negotiated tasks.

Studio Leaders

Tanzil Shafique, Assoc. AIA, is a Ph.D. researcher at the Melbourne School of Design where he also teaches graduate design and planning studios. His Ph.D research investigates morphogenesis of informal settlements. Previously he was a Research Fellow and Studio Instructor at the Fay Jones School of Architecture + Design as well as Project Designer at the Community Design Center, both at the University of Arkansas. His work has garnered numerous AIA National Award for Urban and Regional Planning, as well as his writing on design philosophy and urbanism, has been published internationally. He holds an M.Arch from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York.

Dr Redento B. Recio is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Informal Urbanism (InfUr-) Research Hub of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning. Before joining the University of Melbourne in 2018, he had worked with academic institutions, development NGOs, government agencies, social movements, and private consulting groups in the Philippines. He has also conducted development training activities in different Asian countries (e.g. India, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam). Dr Recio’s research interests include urban planning and governance issues such as informal economic activities, grassroots democracy, collective action, participatory planning, social inclusion policies.

Readings and References

  • Connell, R. (2013). Using southern theory: Decolonizing social thought in theory, research and application. Planning Theory, 13(2), 210-223. doi:10.1177/1473095213499216
  • Devlin, R. T. (2017). Asking ‘Third World questions’ of First World informality: Using Southern theory to parse needs from desires in an analysis of informal urbanism of the global North. Planning Theory, 1473095217737347. doi:10.1177/1473095217737347
  • Escobar, A. (2012). Encountering development : the making and unmaking of the third world. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
  • Jaffe, R. K., M. (2017). The myth of formality in the global North: Informality-as-innovation in Dutch governance. CUS Working Papers Series; 23.
  • Parnell, S. R., Jennifer. (2012). (Re)theorizing Cities from the Global South: Looking Beyond Neoliberalism. Urban Geography, 33(4), 593-617. doi:10.2747/0272-3638.33.4.593
  • Verloo, N. (2016). Learning from informality? Rethinking the mismatch between formal policy strategies and informal tactics of citizenship. Current Sociology, 65(2), 167-181. doi:10.1177/0011392116657287
  • Roy, A. (2009). Strangely Familiar: Planning and the Worlds of Insurgence and Informality. Planning Theory, 8(1), 7-11. doi:10.1177/1473095208099294
  • Harris, R. (2017). Modes of Informal Urban Development: A Global Phenomenon. Journal of Planning Literature, 0885412217737340. doi:10.1177/0885412217737340
  • Iveson, K., Lyons, C., Clark, S., & Weir, S. (2019). The informal Australian city. Australian Geographer, 50(1), 11-27. doi:10.1080/00049182.2018.1505286