Urban Informality Research Insights

A seminar series highlighting research on urban informality offers academics and practitioners an opportunity to exchange knowledge and together delve into topics such as informality in settlements, services, livelihoods, water supply and waste, and transportation. Organized by the Forum on Urban Informality, a group of early-career researchers housed at Penn IUR, events in the “Conversations on Informality” series are structured as dialogues between academics and practitioners. The four events that have taken place since the series began in June 2021 are:

“International Waste Chains: Tracing the Supply Chain from Formal Waste Collection to Informal Waste Processing” (June 18, 2021)

• Silpa Kaza, Senior Urban Specialist at the World Bank, presented an overview of the scale of the waste management challenge, how it relates to urban informality, and what the World Bank does in relation to it.
• Dagna Rams, PhD candidate in Social Anthropology, University of Lausanne (UNIL) in Switzerland, and Visiting Fellow, NYU and the Max Planck Institute, presented on electronic waste processors in Ghana, their financial networks and commodity chains, and the hazards that they face.

“Bridging Gaps in Energy Access: Intersections Between Basic Service Provision, Public Health, and Climate Action” (July 23, 2021)

• Deepti Chatti, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Affiliate Faculty with the Schatz Energy Research Centre at Humboldt State University, presented her insights from nearly a decade of ethnographic research on cookstove use in urban and rural households in the Indian Himalayas.

“Rethinking the Theoretical Divide: Urban Informality in the Global North” (September 3, 2021)

• Robert Fairbanks II, Lecturer and Fellow, Urban Studies Program, University of Pennsylvania, presented his ethnographic work on the informal processes characterizing the housing industry and poverty survival strategies in the Kensington area in a post-industrial Philadelphia.
• Noah Durst, Assistant Professor, Urban and Regional Planning School of Planning, Design, & Construction, Michigan State University, outlined his findings on informal housing in the United States, identifying different housing regulatory regimes and the varied manifestations of informal housing within these contexts.

“The Employment Paradox: High Job Openings and the Undocumented Latinx” (September 24, 2021)

• Héctor Manuel Herrada Rangel, Community Activist, Philadelphia, presented perspectives from the community in Philadelphia about informality and ways to support undocumented communities to formally join the workforce in the U.S.
• Michael Jones-Correa, President’s Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director, Center for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Immigration (CSERI), spoke on the consequences of undocumented status and informality, for the economic, social and civic engagement of the Latinx community in Philadelphia.

Several more events in the series are in development.

Launched in late 2020, the Forum convenes graduate and post-graduate researchers across disciplines to explore the way informality is shaping sustainable urban development. Currently, the Forum totals 40 members who come from schools across the University of Pennsylvania as well as from other institutions. Membership is open to any graduate or post-doc studying informality. To learn more or to join, visit the Penn IUR website or email Indivar Jonnalagadda.