All Rights ReservedOdendaal, NancySiame, GilbertHernandez-Garcia, JaimeKlink, JeroenTella, GuillermoBhan, Gautam2025-02-132025-02-132016978-85-7785-551-1https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/2694Proceedings 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 southThe global financial crisis and subsequent austerity measures in the North and South have brought into stark relief, the limitations of the formal economy in absorbing labour, and the diminishing role of the state in providing access to basic services and housing. Further, in many cities of the South, institutional and legal provisions remain detached from the everyday urban realities and are unable to create a platform for inclusive city planning and service provision. Informal urbanization has therefore continued to become a feature of cities in the global South, as evident in the proliferation of informal settlements on the fringes and on ‘leftover’ land in urban spaces and the increasing importance of the informal economy in providing livelihoods to many. The traditional approach to urban planning, one that emphasizes predictability and control, is ill equipped to deal with the scale at which informality manifests in cities of the global South. Informal settlements not only make up a large portion of the global South cities but are also a dynamic part of them in physical, social and cultural terms. Fiori and Brandao (2010: 188) argue that “Urban informality is inexorably interwoven with the city as a whole – at all scales and levels – and has to be seen as another way of being in the city and constructing it.”EnglishopenAccessconferenceObject73-74