Key Messages

This review is part of the Global Informality Paper Series, and it outlines a new approach to a more differentiated understanding of the concept of informality.

Informality as a concept has been approached from different angles and been subject to different discourse, and each discourse has contributed particular ideas about the informal. In the absence of precise definitions, a decomposition approach is applied to identify and visualize similarities and differences in understanding informality.

Specifically, this paper provides a short overview of the most influential discourses on informality in an (urban) development context informal economy, informal housing, informal land, and urban informality discourses to then present an analytical framework to capture these different views on the informal.

The discussion of informality is very complex and multi-layered. A taxonomy is proposed on seven dimensions of the informal based on the grouping of 120 distinct ideas. A multi-dimensional understanding of informality unlocks comparison between discourses.

Five practice documents of Cities Alliance and its members are analyzed to highlight differences and similarities and suggest promising ways. Different discourses depict informality by referring to its economic, legal, technical, organisational, political, social, and cultural dimensions.

The way we define informality shapes our actions. Definitions draw borders between what we consider and what we exclude in a specific context. A multi-dimensional understanding of informality unlocks comparison between discourses.