Informal City Dialogues

Location: International

Website: www.nextcity.org/informalcity

The Informal City Dialogues is a year-long project supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and conducted by Forum for the Future. It homes in on six cities - Accra, Bangkok, Chennai, Lima, Manila and Nairobi,

In each of these cities, it aims to foster a conversation about the informal urban realm, and how it can be cultivated and harnessed for the benefit of all.

These informal realms, from single-chair barbershops to nine-passenger vans to sprawling settlements, are propelling the explosive growth of the urban Global South. They are the neighborhoods, economies and systems that exist beyond the reach of government: the slums, black-market industries and undocumented businesses that fuel these cities’ growth. They’re split off from the formal city, and often neglected or harassed by local authorities, and yet the informal aspects of these places are also intricately intertwined with the formal. Indeed, many residents have one foot in both worlds: the slum dweller who commutes to her job at a major hospital, the unlicensed microbus driver who lives in a condominium highrise.

They are the neighborhoods, economies and systems that exist beyond the reach of government: the slums, black-market industries and undocumented businesses that fuel these cities’ growth. They’re split off from the formal city, and often neglected or harassed by local authorities. And yet the informal aspects of these places are also intricately intertwined with the formal. Indeed, many residents have one foot in both worlds: the slum dweller who commutes to her job at a major hospital, the unlicensed microbus driver who lives in a condominium highrise.

The Informal City Dialogues will begin a local and international conversation on these issues, in which stakeholders will imagine and create narratives for their urban future. A series of workshops will bring together such stakeholders in each of the six cities, who will participate in a wider dialogue around these narratives with the goal of inspiring positive change in their communities and institutions.

These writers will chronicle not only the project’s workshops, but also report from the street and talk to the people who participate in this remarkable urban dynamic on a daily basis. Their everyday lives tell the story of the informal city, and are the primary sources for what this project hopes to achieve: a more inclusive conversation around urban informality.

Informal City Dialogues will begin a local and international conversation on these issues, in which stakeholders will imagine and create narratives for their urban future.

A series of workshops will bring together such stakeholders in each of the six cities, who will participate in a wider dialogue around these narratives with the goal of inspiring positive change in their communities and institutions.

Over the course of this project, Next City will tell these people’s stories.

We have embedded a writer in each of the six cities who will blog about the intersection of formal and informal for the duration of the project. These writers will chronicle not only the project’s workshops, but also report from the street and talk to the people who participate in this remarkable urban dynamic on a daily basis.

Their everyday lives tell the story of the informal city, and are the primary sources for what this project hopes to achieve: a more inclusive conversation around urban informality.