Mapping Legalities

Urbanisation, Law and Informal Work

Thomas Coggin, Roopa Madhav

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781032471587
• eBook ISBN: 9781040095638
• Topic: Physical Sciences
• Subtopic: Human Geography

This book maps the interactions between informal workers and the law within the urban and spatial environment. It focuses on access to physical space, revealing the punitive ways in which law regulates space and informal work which relies on space.

Across various cities worldwide, the chapters in this book uncover how informal workers remain at the policy and legal margins of urban society and reveal their ongoing endeavour for social and legal protection within local jurisdictional contexts. It spans multiple themes, ranging from street vending to informal work in the gig economy. They shed light on the collective influence of the law and the pursuit of a modern city in contributing to the marginalisation of informal workers. Despite this, the chapters illuminate the strategies employed by informal workers to leverage the law in acknowledging their contributions and asserting their presence in the city.

The book is targeted towards an academic audience and practitioners specialising in law, urban studies and the informal economy. The reader will gain an in-depth and cross-jurisdictional understanding of the indispensable role played by informal workers in providing services to a broader urban population, ranging from street vendors to sanitation workers and sex workers.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title page
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Foreword
• Contributors
• Acknowledgements
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1 Urban regulation for self-employed informal workers
• 2 Disambiguating legalities: Street vending, law, and boundary work in Mexico City
• 3 Power dynamics and the regulation of street vending in the urban space: The law on the books and the law on the ground in Accra and Dakar
• 4 Differential effects of vending formalisation in New York City, USA
• 5 Local government regulations and the dispossession of urban informal vendors in Delhi, India
• 6 Impact of new planning policies on sustenance and inclusivity of street trading in Dhaka: A critical review of Detailed Area Plan 2016–2035
• 7 Advocating for a livelihood-centric master plan: Learnings from Delhi
• 8 Turbulent transformations and urban undesirables: Revanchist urban transition and street-based sex work in Bangalore
• 9 Overlooked mobility: Domestic workers commuting in Bogotá, Medellín, and São Paulo
• 10 New perspectives on the work of waste pickers: The construction of a ‘recycling node’ in Mercedes, Argentina
• 11 Pursuing aspirations for decent sanitation work: How informal workers navigate the universe of rules that shape sanitation practices in urban Africa
• 12 Urban informal workers’ COVID-19 compliance: Evidence on social capital and enforcement politics from Indonesia
• 13 Informal work and the social function of the city: A framework for legal reform in the urban and spatial environment
• Index