Penn IUR Announces Photo Contest on Urban Informality

The Penn Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR) is pleased to announce its annual photo contest. This year’s theme focuses on the topic of urban informality.

The contest is open to the public. Submissions will be accepted March 8- April 18, 2019.

In particular, we are interested in photos that capture the ways that people in urban areas create or use informal systems to survive and thrive. Photos might highlight one or multiple aspects of informality-- in housing, work, transportation, food production, education—or any other facet or facets of urban life.

Informality is economic or social activity that takes place outside of formally regulated structures. Such activities are not necessarily illegal, though they may be. Some simply exist outside of the framework of a given country’s codified laws. While informality is often discussed in the context of developing countries as in unregulated labor markets, small-scale commercial enterprises, subsistence farming or slum dwellings, it also operates in the world’s richest and most developed countries. In the U.S. for example, unlicensed food trucks or street vendors are ubiquitous on some city streets, and homeowners hold furniture sales in their front yards.

We welcome photos that capture informality in any of its many forms, and from any corner of the world.

To enter, participants should text their image to Penn IUR (@PennIUR), and include a short description of the photo, as well as the date and location that the photo was taken, and the hashtag #IURPhotoComp. For those who do not use social media, submissions can be emailed to penniur@pobox.upenn.edu.

Submissions will be judged by a panel of urban experts. Winners will be announced on April 24 at “Why Cities? Roundtable on Informality as a Way of Life: Challenges to Sustainable Urban Development,” to be held at the University of Pennsylvania. 

For additional information, visit penniur.upenn.edu.

Please direct any questions to Deborah Lang at dlang@upenn.edu or 215.880.2372, or to Max Donnewald at maxrd@upenn.edu or 215.573.8386.