Reconsidering Informality: perspectives from urban Africa (review)

This volume brings together two distinct bodies of social science scholarship that hitherto have been separated in most work on urban Africa: urban land use and housing, and production and reproduction of the informal economy. It does this well, breaking the studies into three main sections that link logically to the introductory argument that urban development projects often fail because legal and institutional frameworks are inadequately considered. This task, the editors argue, must be undertaken not by foreigners but by those living in the cities themselves who know how to work both formal and informal mechanisms.

Locality, place and space are dealt with first; then economy, work and livelihoods; and finally land, housing and planning. Of the eleven case studies, more than half are contributed by African scholars, although there is a marked bias in content towards east and southern Africa. The editors open with the concept of the ‘informal city’ (comprised of extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities), and one of their strengths is that from the onset they acknowledge that this arena is not exclusively the domain of the poor – the rich seize their chances too, often to the detriment of the poorer inhabitants. The contestations between rich and poor are fleshed out throughout the chapters. The contribution by Jenkins refrains from making the time-honoured call for a reconceptualization of in formality, but asks instead that we question the simplistic definition of formality that has been appropriated to the often exclusive benefit of the urban-based elites.

In the opening background to the terms ‘informal settlement’ and ‘informal economy’ we are also gratefully spared too much undue emphasis on Hart’s early work on a bygone era that – although crucial in a literature review of the informal economy – has been covered to the point of exhaustion. Rather, this book engages with Hart’s perceptive present-day analysis of contemporary urban areas, where he asserts that the term ‘informal economy’ has outgrown its usefulness because so much of the economy is informal. On the face of it, Tranberg Hansen and Vaa’s retort appears weak: that the term remains constructive by revealing how livelihoods are made when there are very few resources with which to make a living. But their approach, in showing how solutions can be reached, is strong and fresh. As Abbott remarks in his piece on upgrading an informal settlement in Cape Town, building linkages across the formal/informal divide depends not only on what is done, but how it is done – and the chapters do give us this insight into how contestations are resolved.

What the reader does not find in the case studies, however, is coverage of the proliferation of new forms of social ties, networks and solidarities formed in the reorientation towards the periphery. This is hinted at in the introduction, and we learn that it takes place in ‘barber shops and hair salons, video parlours, drinking places, revivalist churches, and other forms of associational life’ (pp. 13–14). A little on these interactions would have been welcome in place of the (at times) unnecessarily long historical backgrounds to the cities. One rationale the editors give for the study is the role that HIV/AIDS is playing in reshaping the environment of the new African city. It is also a shame that scant reference is made in the chapters to how this is affecting the linkages that are covered in otherwise helpful detail.

Despite these shortcomings, there are some wonderfully detailed chapters. Among them, Kamete’s study of home industries in Harare stands out with a clear and to-the-point style that is complemented by figures that usefully simplify his analysis of the relationship between the formal and informal city. The editors are aware that the detail on the size, composition, organization, competitiveness and links to the formal sector of urban informal economies that is offered in this and many other chapters...