Definitions
What is urban informality?
Approximately how many people in the world rely on informal urban structures and systems?
1 billion + people in the world rely on informal or self-built housing and street vending (nearly 1/4 of the world's urban population).
How does Simone (2004) define urban infrastructure?
People are considered part of urban infrastructure, actively shaping the city through activities and networks.
What is the key difference between urban theorists like Roy and Simone versus Bhan as urban theorists?
Roy and Simone are mostly comparative urban theorists, while Bhan challenges western-centric urban theory by working primarily in one setting (India).
What is a township in the context of South Africa?
An area or city of predominantly Black occupation, formerly officially designated for Black occupation by Apartheid legislation.
How might elite housing be "informal"?
In cities like Cairo, elite housing may violate land use regulations but be sanctioned by the state because of economic benefits.
What is distributive justice in the context of cities?
In her critique of modern urban planning, Ananya Roy argues that planners need to move away from planning "order" and towards inequities in how wealth and land is shared in cities.
Explain the difference between urban villages and planned colonies in New Delhi.
Urban Villages - densely-populated, previously rural villages that have been incorporated into urban areas as they city expanded.
Planned Colonies - Plots marked specifically for urban development and laid out according to hegemonic norms for "design, infrastructure, and amenities" (pg 60).
What are bastis?
In many Indian cities, this is the local term used by residents to describe their neighbourhoods, serving as a more culturally respectful alternative to the English word "slum".
Give two examples of "invisible" infrastructure or planning in African cities.
Illegal electricity connections, informal or social territorialisation, informal supplementing of formal income, more people living in a compound than legally-designated.