Theory
Urban Informality (the informal city)
Explore in the Atlas →Ananya Roy's reframing of informality not as marginal poverty but as a generalised mode of producing urban space — and even a practice of the state itself, which deregulates and exempts selectively. Informality dissolves the formal/informal binary and decentres urban theory from the Global North.
Settlement Production Power
Details
- Introduced
- 2005
Classifications
- Holder
- Individual
- Source of authority
- Observation
- Subject
- Human centred
- Political position
- Subaltern resistant
- Mode of transmission
- Text drawing
- Knowledge type
- Propositional
- Epistemic cluster
- Western philosophical
Connections
- relates to The Right to the City
Referenced by
- Ananya Roy proposed
- Subaltern Urbanism relates to
Sources
- Ananya Roy. Urban Informality: Toward an Epistemology of Planning (JAPA 71:2). Journal of the American Planning Association, 2005.
Cite this entry
First published May 2026Last revised Jul 2026
CLAD. "Urban Informality (the informal city)." Atlas of Architectural Thought. CLAD, 2026. https://www.cl-ad.com.au/research/atlas/theory/urban-informality/. Accessed July 17, 2026.