Revisiting the “Informal Settlement” Phenomenon

Abstract

This chapter provides a broad theoretical overview of informality by outlining some popular misconceptions on informality: that informal settlements are solely a developing countries’ problem; that those myths are essentially long-gone; and, that the distinction between formality and informality still holds. This chapter briefly touches on each of these myths and offers a fairly broad conceptual framework arguing that as the backbone of any physical upgrading policy, enabling or enablement of informal settlements should reflect the juxtaposition of two simultaneous undercurrents, namely, the “formalization of the informal” and the “informalization of the formal.” As part of this debate, the chapter takes a hard look at a series of government policies that have been in vogue in response to slum or informal settlement upgrading including benign neglect, forced relocation or evacuation, self-help, public housing, redevelopment and eventually, enabling since the 1950s and 1960s. Showcasing the legality–illegality discourse as a hotly debated component of informal settlements, this conceptual framework revisits the formal–informal nexus by distinguishing between regularization vs. regularizing aspects of each policy.