Invisible urban informality: compromised living environments in East and Southeast Asia
Date
2016
Authors
Editors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
AESOP
Abstract
Several major cities across the world are facing severe problems such as high rate of inward migration, overcrowding and consequent escalation in living costs. Especially in the developing countries which consist of more rural areas than cities, skilled as well as unskilled workers often perceive cities to be attractive locations for a better socio-economic standard of living. This heterogeneous pattern of migration often creates a social and economic polarization in rapidly urbanizing cities where some populations suffer from poor living conditions and slums. However, in the prominent cities of East and Southeast Asia, these deteriorating components are concealed in urban fabric and sociopolitical structures either deliberately or due to circumstances, although in fact; they coexist with the upbeat image of the urban streetscape, the latter being branded lavishly. This ‘out-of-sight’ inequality in urban development forces the vulnerable resident population to also face disparities in overall quality of life. In this paper, I use the term, invisible informality to refer to this phenomenon.
I identify the surfacing of this situation through an analysis of three existing bodies of literature: urbanization in East and Southeast Asia, sociospatial exclusion and inequality, and informality as a response to urban socio-political policies. Additionally, I also examine informality in employment with respect to gender, recent commodification of land and buildings in the development state model and the association of these phenomena with rapid economic growth in East Asia.
Description
Proceedings of the IV World Planning Schools Congress, July 3-8th, 2016 : Global crisis, planning and challenges to spatial justice in the north and in the south
Keywords
License
All Rights Reserved