About IGU-ISCD

The IGU Commission on Informality, Social Change and Development (ISCD) was approved at the Istanbul meeting of the IGU Executive Committee in 2021. The ISCD is established in time to advance the global understanding of geographies of the heterogeneous informality over the world. Informality becomes a pervasive feature of the transforming society in both global South and North. Today, one billion people or 13% of global populations live in informal settlements and two billion people or 61% of global workforces work in informal economies. Informality is diverse. It has economic, social, spatial and political dimensions, involving informal economies, informal employment, informal work, informal housing, informal settlements, informal institution and informal governance. The ISCD aims to promote the research of the complexity and diversity of its dynamics, forms and impacts in different contexts. It is dedicated to bring together social, economic, political and urban geographers to promote interdisciplinary research on informalities, social transformation and development. Above all, the ISCD aims at advancing theories on informality and inclusive development, shaping new visions on and approaches to just, equal and sustainable societies and cities.

Objectives

The ISCD aims to advance the global understanding of geographies of economic, spatial, social and political dimensions of informality by facilitating international collaboration and interdisciplinary communication. It is dedicated to the following objectives:

1.Promote the advancement of theories on employment, urbanization, planning and development through the lens of informality.

2.Strengthen comparative research and transdisciplinary communication on different forms and dynamics of informality in the global South and North.

3.Advance the communication on successful practices of formalizing informality and promote mobilities of good policies between countries.

4.Inspire new visions on social inclusion and equality through critical research of informality.

5.Enhance the exchange between academic researchers (from multiple disciplines) and non-academic actors/experts from international organizations on informality and development.

Focus of research

At least five specific problem areas can be highlighted at the current time for guiding the research task of the ISCD.

1.Geographies of informal economies: old and new forms of informal economies and informal employment in different socio-economic contexts; the geography of segmentation of informal labor markets across industrial sectors; spatial patterns of informal economies at different geographical scales; social spaces of informal economies (e.g., villages-in-the-city, ethnic minorities enclaves, informal labor market places).

2.Informality and social processes: the geographically embedded relation between informal economies and economic development; the linkage between informal and formal economies; the emergence of informality in digital capitalism; the relationship between informalization and globalization; the relationship between informalization and urbanization; informalization, poverty and social polarization.

3.Informal production of spaces: unregulated/unplanned processes and modes of land development; informal regimes/practices in urban and rural renewal/regeneration; production of informal housing; local manifestations of informal settlements; the individual spontaneous and informal access to collective consumption; political and social contestation of informal spatial production; institutionalization/legalization of informal practices in spatial production.

4.Informality and agency: structural conditions constraining the livelihoods of the informal; the way the individual coping with the dramatic socio-spatial transformation, economic recession and environmental crisis outside the formal system; self-help practices and resilience in the face of adversity; informality and rural-to-urban migration; processes and mechanism of being out of informality.

5.Informality, governance and inclusion: locally situated state’s responses to informality; formalization of informality; good governance of informality; state’s informal practices in dealing with social, economic and environmental crisis and its relation with formal system; social inclusion of informality.