THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

5BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

Informal urbanism is not a new subject in urban studies yet it has recently been receiving increased focus among researchers as well as policy-makers ndash what one may describe as an informal turn in urban theory This is evidenced in publications such as The Ludic City by Quentin Stevens (2007) Jeff rey Hoursquos (2010) Insurgent Public Space Guerilla Urbanism and the Remaking of the Contemporary Cities or Kim Doveyrsquos (2009) Becoming Places What these publications have in common is that they focus on the everyday practices of ordinary citizens forcing a reconfi gured relationship between those in power and the inhabitants of cities Various institutions are recognizing this as well In a 2007 meeting organized by the Holcim Foundation concerning Sustainable Urbanism one sub-theme dealt with informal urbanism describing it as lsquothe intermingling of formal and informal modes of organizationrsquo which lsquopromotes a split condition leaving its traces in the very fabric of the cityrsquo Accordingly lsquothis confounds practiced renditions of urban governance which adhere to top-down approaches without due att ention given to bott om-up processes of self-regulationrsquo1 Similar themes were also explored during the 2010 International Architecture Biennale in Rott erdam which had as its theme lsquoOpen City Designing Co-existencersquo2 At the level of policy numerous publications by United Nations organizations such as Habitat and ESCWA have been looking at the extent to which informal sett lements for instance have become means of survival for urban residents (eg UN-Habitat 2007) Similarly eff orts by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Germanyrsquos GTZ are targeting slum upgrading projects in Cairo by empowering their inhabitants (GTZ 2009)

Such interest raises the question as to why at this particular moment has there been this increased activity Historically calls for informality can be traced back to the 1960s when The Situationists and others questioned received urbanism theories promoted by the modernists (Sadler 1999) But in the twenty-first century certain changes in the nature of cities and governance can be looked at as factors contributing to a renewed interest in this issue For one thing there is the much cited statistic about an increasingly urbanizing world where for the first time in recent human history more people live in cities than in rural areas with the resultant proliferation of mega-cities and increased migration to urban centres Mike Davisrsquos Planet of Slums (2007) offered a stark and unflattering assessment of these developments Obviously many cities cannot cope with such an influx and thus alternative strategies for inhabiting urban spaces need to be devised On the other hand an increasingly politically aware populace is searching for ways that would undermine neoliberal tendencies promoting the privatization of urban public space for instance Closely related to this point is the notion of globalization and a realization that cities throughout the world are becoming homogenized entities Informal strategies provide a counterpoint to these globalizing tendencies by offering an expressive and individualized outlet for citizens Informality thus enables researchers professionals and public officials to re-examine the nature of cities and the extent to which residents and migrants seek to carve out liveable spaces that would mitigate homogenizing and oppressive tendencies One could also make the argument that the recent financial

The Informal TurnYASSER ELSHESHTAWY

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

6 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

crisis has put the spotlight on the excesses of spectacular urbanism and that a more lsquodown-to-earthrsquo approach favouring the everyday and the mundane would be more pertinent (Elsheshtawy forthcoming)

Furthermore one could argue that conventional top down planning approaches do not adequately capture the complexities of everyday life and the extent to which city residents negotiate urban spaces in their daily lives in the process both reconstituting and re-appropriating physical spaces Through this they impose an alternative order one that overcomes the limitations and constraints posed by the built environment This can take many forms ndash informal market places outdoor vendors formation of gathering places in abandoned sites informal housing and impromptu soccer games in parking lots or abandoned building sites Bordering on illegality such practices are barely tolerated and in some instances actively persecuted This follows a desire to sanitize city spaces thus making them more palatable to the demands of a global economy and the perception of tourists as they become stage sets for an imagined order that discourages the accidental and the unusual Yet an understanding of informal settings and the degree to which the urban environment can provide a framework that would allow for the unfolding of unplanned events and activities is crucial for sustaining vibrant urban settings

For many urbanists and observers of urban life informality has become the defining characteristic of lsquocitynessrsquo (eg Simone 2010) Drawing on the work of Lefebvre and others they extol the virtues of the accidental and the unpredictable Henri Lefebvre (1991) for example argued that all forms of social experience are constituted in and through space It is in urban spaces that the scope of what people experience as lsquoeveryday lifersquo continually develops His notion of the social oeuvre for instance elevates the role of chance encounters social mixing exploration of the unfamiliar and risk He notes that

through such interactions there is a discovery of diverse needs Thus as Lefebvre puts it lsquohellip the urban becomes what it always was a place of desire permanent disequilibrium seat of the dissolution of normalities and constraints the moment of play and the unpredictablersquo (p 129) He distinguished between two simultaneous realities that exist within everyday life the quotidian the timeless humble repetitive natural rhythms of life and the modern the always new and constantly changing habits that are shaped by technology and worldliness In a similar vein Michel de Certeau (1984) conceptualized how people operate within urban spaces advocating the power of city residents to challenge officially sanctioned urbanism ndash strategies practised by those in power ndash by using tactics ie transitory and ephemeral urban activities Through these they are able to change the organization of spaces ndash they are lsquothe art of the weakrsquo and constitute an lsquoincursion into the field of the powerfulrsquo The work of Jane Jacobs and Richard Sennett and more recently Michael Sorkin as well as Sharon Zukin (Jacobs 1961 Sennett 1977 Sorkin 2009 Zukin 2010) while not explicitly dealing with informal urbanism nevertheless continues this research tradition

Having established a theoretical back-ground of sorts this issue of Built Environ-ment seeks to make a contribution to the notion of informality in cities offering examples of cutting edge research concerning this subject Contributors have addressed this in a number of ways showing not just the subjectrsquos versatility and diversity but also allowing for some common themes to emerge ndash in spite of geographical methodological and theoretical differences For instance both Mahyar Arefi in his exploration of the Pinar settlement in Istanbul and Kim Dovey and Ross King in their examination of Southeast Asian informal residential formations are seeking an underlying order a typology of sorts In that way they are acknowledging and legitimizing these alternative modes of habitation In a similar manner but focusing

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

7BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

on socio-economic factors are Tom Anyambarsquos interrogation of Nairobi and Gareth Doherty and Moises Silvarsquos exploration of Riorsquos infamous favelas Both are trying to unravel the negative connotations associated with informality by providing an in-depth look at two cases While Anyamba attempts to situate the emergence of informality in Nairobi setting this within a larger political context (post-colonialism) Doherty and Silva are placing their inquiry within an ongoing debate in Brazil concerning favelas and their place within a modern society Their concise and sharp article seeks to question the notion of informality itself by provocatively suggesting that binary distinctions are not relevant

Informal urbanism as a strategy of survival and assertion of an ethnic identity is a theme that unites both Petra Kuppingerrsquos study of an Islamic community centre in Stuttgart and my own mapping project of Abu Dhabirsquos urban spaces and their use by a marginalized segment of society Kuppingerrsquos research about the transformation of a mosque shows both the resilience and the ingenuity of an ethnic minority in Western Europe Her exploration is particularly timely given the recent debates about minarets in Switzerland as well as the role of Moslem migrants within European societies My study of the informal use of public spaces in Abu Dhabi attempts to shed light on the extent to which migrant communities even within a limiting and restrictive context such as the Arabian Gulf are able to carve out spaces that defy the official narrative imposed by a dominating minority Again the subject is timely given concerns about the rights of labourers within an Arabian Gulf context showing the extent to which they are not always confined to lsquotoilingrsquo within the lsquoabject conditionsrsquo of labour camps (eg Elsheshtawy 2008)

At the level of methodology some papers have called for the use of ethnography as a research tool that by its very nature would allow for a deep and rich understanding of informal processes In particular Doherty and

Moises and Kuppinger have explicitly used ethnographic methodologies in presenting their cases Their depiction of everyday life and activities in true anthropological fashion offers a refreshing and much needed insight Mapping techniques for understanding informality at a larger scale within an under researched context which I attempted to do as well as the typological inquiry developed by Dovey and King could also be construed as innovative methodologies for tackling this subject

The papers in this issue have for the most part focused on specific cases set within a city Thus Arefi presents the district of Pinar within the overall context of Istanbul Doherty and Silva discuss the well-known favela of Rocinha within the city of Rio de Janeiro Tom Anyamba focuses on the district of Buru Buru in Nairobi Petra Kuppinger sheds light on an industrial district in the city of Stuttgart My own interrogation of Abu Dhabi is not dedicated to a specific case but uncovers modes of informality spread throughout the city in a series of lsquovignettesrsquo Standing out in this collection is Doveyrsquos and Kingrsquos discussion concerning forms of informality Their approach necessitates not so much a focus on a specific case or city Instead they are using broad brush-strokes of various modes of informality drawing on a large repertoire of cities settlements and neighbourhoods The result is a rich tapestry that has the potential for further in-depth investigations Because of the broad ranging nature of this article it starts the collection in this issue Subsequent papers are grouped according to the themes discussed in this introduction

Informal urbanism as these papers show enriches the lives of city inhabitants and in many ways strengthens the liveability of cities To illustrate this point further I conclude with an example from Berlin ndash namely the lsquoMediaspree Projectrsquo The lsquoSpreersquo is a river running through Berlin alongside its once infamous wall which divided the city into East and West Waterfronts are always

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

8 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

valuable real estate and as such it was no surprise that the Berlin government aimed at turning this into an investment opportunity by selling the land along the river to investors ndash foreign and German A series of high-rise towers that would have turned this area into a private space for office workers and corporations was proposed Promptly a group of activists rallied against this project They did not just stop there but took their protest a step further and occupied a stretch of empty land along the river that had been slated for development and turned it into an informal public place One enters through an opening in the wall and is faced with a series of temporary structures The concrete fencewall is painted with colourful drawings and text The ground is covered in sand thus making the space resemble a beach There is an lsquoAfricanrsquo feel to the space ndash suggested by the nature of the paintings the music

emanating from the cafeteria and also the name of the space ndash YAAM ndash which stands for Young African Arts Market (figures 1 to 3) Naturally the government did not approve of this but it seems to have been tolerated given that there is an overall depression of the real estate market and many investors are waiting until the environment improves But more significantly the activists have secured the support of the Green Party which has been invited to plant trees for example In addition they have also been lobbying for a change in building regulations to enable people to enjoy the river Thus they were able to secure regulations specifying that a distance of 10 m to 50 m from the river should be maintained as public space

Such efforts exist to varying degrees in other parts of the world ndash whereby residents take matters into their own hand and create a kind of alternative urbanity within a cityrsquos

Figures 1 and 2enspThe Young African Arts Market ndash YAAM A communal space set apart from the city

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

9BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

fringe spaces that defies what they perceive as an infringement of peoplersquos right to access public amenities such as rivers Similar to what the authors in this issue have been investigating ndash this case demonstrates the increasingly blurred boundaries between formal and informal the potentially posi-tive quality of informal urbanism and a reali-zation that a truly sustainable urban environ-ment cannot be nurtured and maintained without letting city inhabitants have a say in how space can be used and modified Otherwise the obsessive desire for order may ultimately and inadvertently lead to an oppressive environment

NOTES

1emsphtt pwwwholcimfoundationorgT460F07WKInfhtm Accessed 12 January 20112emsphtt piabrnlENactivitiesexhibitions_a n d _ e v e n t s I A B R - - - I n t e r n a t i o n a l -Architecture-Biennale-Rotterdam_0php Accessed 12 January 2011

REFERENCESDavis Mike (2007) Planet of Slums London Versode Certeau Michel (1984) The Practice of Everyday

Life (translated by Steven Rendell) Berkeley CA University of California Press

Dovey Kim (2009) Becoming Places UrbanismArchi-tectureIdentityPower London Routledge

Elsheshtawy Yasser (2008) Transitory sites map-ping Dubairsquos lsquoforgott enrsquo urban public spaces The International Journal of Urban amp Regional Research 32(4) pp 968ndash988

Elsheshtawy Yasser (forthcoming 2011) Litt le spacebig space everyday urbanism in Dubai Brown Journal of World Aff airs

GTZ (2009) Cairorsquos Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials Cairo GTZ

Hou Jeff rey (2010) Insurgent Public Space Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities London Routledge

Jacobs Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities New York Random House

Lefebvre Henry (1991) Critique of Everyday Life London Verso

Sadler Simon (1999) The Situationist City Cam-bridge MA MIT Press

Figure 3enspFringe sett ings exist along the river ndash constructed by activists

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

6 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

crisis has put the spotlight on the excesses of spectacular urbanism and that a more lsquodown-to-earthrsquo approach favouring the everyday and the mundane would be more pertinent (Elsheshtawy forthcoming)

Furthermore one could argue that conventional top down planning approaches do not adequately capture the complexities of everyday life and the extent to which city residents negotiate urban spaces in their daily lives in the process both reconstituting and re-appropriating physical spaces Through this they impose an alternative order one that overcomes the limitations and constraints posed by the built environment This can take many forms ndash informal market places outdoor vendors formation of gathering places in abandoned sites informal housing and impromptu soccer games in parking lots or abandoned building sites Bordering on illegality such practices are barely tolerated and in some instances actively persecuted This follows a desire to sanitize city spaces thus making them more palatable to the demands of a global economy and the perception of tourists as they become stage sets for an imagined order that discourages the accidental and the unusual Yet an understanding of informal settings and the degree to which the urban environment can provide a framework that would allow for the unfolding of unplanned events and activities is crucial for sustaining vibrant urban settings

For many urbanists and observers of urban life informality has become the defining characteristic of lsquocitynessrsquo (eg Simone 2010) Drawing on the work of Lefebvre and others they extol the virtues of the accidental and the unpredictable Henri Lefebvre (1991) for example argued that all forms of social experience are constituted in and through space It is in urban spaces that the scope of what people experience as lsquoeveryday lifersquo continually develops His notion of the social oeuvre for instance elevates the role of chance encounters social mixing exploration of the unfamiliar and risk He notes that

through such interactions there is a discovery of diverse needs Thus as Lefebvre puts it lsquohellip the urban becomes what it always was a place of desire permanent disequilibrium seat of the dissolution of normalities and constraints the moment of play and the unpredictablersquo (p 129) He distinguished between two simultaneous realities that exist within everyday life the quotidian the timeless humble repetitive natural rhythms of life and the modern the always new and constantly changing habits that are shaped by technology and worldliness In a similar vein Michel de Certeau (1984) conceptualized how people operate within urban spaces advocating the power of city residents to challenge officially sanctioned urbanism ndash strategies practised by those in power ndash by using tactics ie transitory and ephemeral urban activities Through these they are able to change the organization of spaces ndash they are lsquothe art of the weakrsquo and constitute an lsquoincursion into the field of the powerfulrsquo The work of Jane Jacobs and Richard Sennett and more recently Michael Sorkin as well as Sharon Zukin (Jacobs 1961 Sennett 1977 Sorkin 2009 Zukin 2010) while not explicitly dealing with informal urbanism nevertheless continues this research tradition

Having established a theoretical back-ground of sorts this issue of Built Environ-ment seeks to make a contribution to the notion of informality in cities offering examples of cutting edge research concerning this subject Contributors have addressed this in a number of ways showing not just the subjectrsquos versatility and diversity but also allowing for some common themes to emerge ndash in spite of geographical methodological and theoretical differences For instance both Mahyar Arefi in his exploration of the Pinar settlement in Istanbul and Kim Dovey and Ross King in their examination of Southeast Asian informal residential formations are seeking an underlying order a typology of sorts In that way they are acknowledging and legitimizing these alternative modes of habitation In a similar manner but focusing

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

7BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

on socio-economic factors are Tom Anyambarsquos interrogation of Nairobi and Gareth Doherty and Moises Silvarsquos exploration of Riorsquos infamous favelas Both are trying to unravel the negative connotations associated with informality by providing an in-depth look at two cases While Anyamba attempts to situate the emergence of informality in Nairobi setting this within a larger political context (post-colonialism) Doherty and Silva are placing their inquiry within an ongoing debate in Brazil concerning favelas and their place within a modern society Their concise and sharp article seeks to question the notion of informality itself by provocatively suggesting that binary distinctions are not relevant

Informal urbanism as a strategy of survival and assertion of an ethnic identity is a theme that unites both Petra Kuppingerrsquos study of an Islamic community centre in Stuttgart and my own mapping project of Abu Dhabirsquos urban spaces and their use by a marginalized segment of society Kuppingerrsquos research about the transformation of a mosque shows both the resilience and the ingenuity of an ethnic minority in Western Europe Her exploration is particularly timely given the recent debates about minarets in Switzerland as well as the role of Moslem migrants within European societies My study of the informal use of public spaces in Abu Dhabi attempts to shed light on the extent to which migrant communities even within a limiting and restrictive context such as the Arabian Gulf are able to carve out spaces that defy the official narrative imposed by a dominating minority Again the subject is timely given concerns about the rights of labourers within an Arabian Gulf context showing the extent to which they are not always confined to lsquotoilingrsquo within the lsquoabject conditionsrsquo of labour camps (eg Elsheshtawy 2008)

At the level of methodology some papers have called for the use of ethnography as a research tool that by its very nature would allow for a deep and rich understanding of informal processes In particular Doherty and

Moises and Kuppinger have explicitly used ethnographic methodologies in presenting their cases Their depiction of everyday life and activities in true anthropological fashion offers a refreshing and much needed insight Mapping techniques for understanding informality at a larger scale within an under researched context which I attempted to do as well as the typological inquiry developed by Dovey and King could also be construed as innovative methodologies for tackling this subject

The papers in this issue have for the most part focused on specific cases set within a city Thus Arefi presents the district of Pinar within the overall context of Istanbul Doherty and Silva discuss the well-known favela of Rocinha within the city of Rio de Janeiro Tom Anyamba focuses on the district of Buru Buru in Nairobi Petra Kuppinger sheds light on an industrial district in the city of Stuttgart My own interrogation of Abu Dhabi is not dedicated to a specific case but uncovers modes of informality spread throughout the city in a series of lsquovignettesrsquo Standing out in this collection is Doveyrsquos and Kingrsquos discussion concerning forms of informality Their approach necessitates not so much a focus on a specific case or city Instead they are using broad brush-strokes of various modes of informality drawing on a large repertoire of cities settlements and neighbourhoods The result is a rich tapestry that has the potential for further in-depth investigations Because of the broad ranging nature of this article it starts the collection in this issue Subsequent papers are grouped according to the themes discussed in this introduction

Informal urbanism as these papers show enriches the lives of city inhabitants and in many ways strengthens the liveability of cities To illustrate this point further I conclude with an example from Berlin ndash namely the lsquoMediaspree Projectrsquo The lsquoSpreersquo is a river running through Berlin alongside its once infamous wall which divided the city into East and West Waterfronts are always

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

8 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

valuable real estate and as such it was no surprise that the Berlin government aimed at turning this into an investment opportunity by selling the land along the river to investors ndash foreign and German A series of high-rise towers that would have turned this area into a private space for office workers and corporations was proposed Promptly a group of activists rallied against this project They did not just stop there but took their protest a step further and occupied a stretch of empty land along the river that had been slated for development and turned it into an informal public place One enters through an opening in the wall and is faced with a series of temporary structures The concrete fencewall is painted with colourful drawings and text The ground is covered in sand thus making the space resemble a beach There is an lsquoAfricanrsquo feel to the space ndash suggested by the nature of the paintings the music

emanating from the cafeteria and also the name of the space ndash YAAM ndash which stands for Young African Arts Market (figures 1 to 3) Naturally the government did not approve of this but it seems to have been tolerated given that there is an overall depression of the real estate market and many investors are waiting until the environment improves But more significantly the activists have secured the support of the Green Party which has been invited to plant trees for example In addition they have also been lobbying for a change in building regulations to enable people to enjoy the river Thus they were able to secure regulations specifying that a distance of 10 m to 50 m from the river should be maintained as public space

Such efforts exist to varying degrees in other parts of the world ndash whereby residents take matters into their own hand and create a kind of alternative urbanity within a cityrsquos

Figures 1 and 2enspThe Young African Arts Market ndash YAAM A communal space set apart from the city

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

9BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

fringe spaces that defies what they perceive as an infringement of peoplersquos right to access public amenities such as rivers Similar to what the authors in this issue have been investigating ndash this case demonstrates the increasingly blurred boundaries between formal and informal the potentially posi-tive quality of informal urbanism and a reali-zation that a truly sustainable urban environ-ment cannot be nurtured and maintained without letting city inhabitants have a say in how space can be used and modified Otherwise the obsessive desire for order may ultimately and inadvertently lead to an oppressive environment

NOTES

1emsphtt pwwwholcimfoundationorgT460F07WKInfhtm Accessed 12 January 20112emsphtt piabrnlENactivitiesexhibitions_a n d _ e v e n t s I A B R - - - I n t e r n a t i o n a l -Architecture-Biennale-Rotterdam_0php Accessed 12 January 2011

REFERENCESDavis Mike (2007) Planet of Slums London Versode Certeau Michel (1984) The Practice of Everyday

Life (translated by Steven Rendell) Berkeley CA University of California Press

Dovey Kim (2009) Becoming Places UrbanismArchi-tectureIdentityPower London Routledge

Elsheshtawy Yasser (2008) Transitory sites map-ping Dubairsquos lsquoforgott enrsquo urban public spaces The International Journal of Urban amp Regional Research 32(4) pp 968ndash988

Elsheshtawy Yasser (forthcoming 2011) Litt le spacebig space everyday urbanism in Dubai Brown Journal of World Aff airs

GTZ (2009) Cairorsquos Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials Cairo GTZ

Hou Jeff rey (2010) Insurgent Public Space Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities London Routledge

Jacobs Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities New York Random House

Lefebvre Henry (1991) Critique of Everyday Life London Verso

Sadler Simon (1999) The Situationist City Cam-bridge MA MIT Press

Figure 3enspFringe sett ings exist along the river ndash constructed by activists

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

7BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

on socio-economic factors are Tom Anyambarsquos interrogation of Nairobi and Gareth Doherty and Moises Silvarsquos exploration of Riorsquos infamous favelas Both are trying to unravel the negative connotations associated with informality by providing an in-depth look at two cases While Anyamba attempts to situate the emergence of informality in Nairobi setting this within a larger political context (post-colonialism) Doherty and Silva are placing their inquiry within an ongoing debate in Brazil concerning favelas and their place within a modern society Their concise and sharp article seeks to question the notion of informality itself by provocatively suggesting that binary distinctions are not relevant

Informal urbanism as a strategy of survival and assertion of an ethnic identity is a theme that unites both Petra Kuppingerrsquos study of an Islamic community centre in Stuttgart and my own mapping project of Abu Dhabirsquos urban spaces and their use by a marginalized segment of society Kuppingerrsquos research about the transformation of a mosque shows both the resilience and the ingenuity of an ethnic minority in Western Europe Her exploration is particularly timely given the recent debates about minarets in Switzerland as well as the role of Moslem migrants within European societies My study of the informal use of public spaces in Abu Dhabi attempts to shed light on the extent to which migrant communities even within a limiting and restrictive context such as the Arabian Gulf are able to carve out spaces that defy the official narrative imposed by a dominating minority Again the subject is timely given concerns about the rights of labourers within an Arabian Gulf context showing the extent to which they are not always confined to lsquotoilingrsquo within the lsquoabject conditionsrsquo of labour camps (eg Elsheshtawy 2008)

At the level of methodology some papers have called for the use of ethnography as a research tool that by its very nature would allow for a deep and rich understanding of informal processes In particular Doherty and

Moises and Kuppinger have explicitly used ethnographic methodologies in presenting their cases Their depiction of everyday life and activities in true anthropological fashion offers a refreshing and much needed insight Mapping techniques for understanding informality at a larger scale within an under researched context which I attempted to do as well as the typological inquiry developed by Dovey and King could also be construed as innovative methodologies for tackling this subject

The papers in this issue have for the most part focused on specific cases set within a city Thus Arefi presents the district of Pinar within the overall context of Istanbul Doherty and Silva discuss the well-known favela of Rocinha within the city of Rio de Janeiro Tom Anyamba focuses on the district of Buru Buru in Nairobi Petra Kuppinger sheds light on an industrial district in the city of Stuttgart My own interrogation of Abu Dhabi is not dedicated to a specific case but uncovers modes of informality spread throughout the city in a series of lsquovignettesrsquo Standing out in this collection is Doveyrsquos and Kingrsquos discussion concerning forms of informality Their approach necessitates not so much a focus on a specific case or city Instead they are using broad brush-strokes of various modes of informality drawing on a large repertoire of cities settlements and neighbourhoods The result is a rich tapestry that has the potential for further in-depth investigations Because of the broad ranging nature of this article it starts the collection in this issue Subsequent papers are grouped according to the themes discussed in this introduction

Informal urbanism as these papers show enriches the lives of city inhabitants and in many ways strengthens the liveability of cities To illustrate this point further I conclude with an example from Berlin ndash namely the lsquoMediaspree Projectrsquo The lsquoSpreersquo is a river running through Berlin alongside its once infamous wall which divided the city into East and West Waterfronts are always

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

8 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

valuable real estate and as such it was no surprise that the Berlin government aimed at turning this into an investment opportunity by selling the land along the river to investors ndash foreign and German A series of high-rise towers that would have turned this area into a private space for office workers and corporations was proposed Promptly a group of activists rallied against this project They did not just stop there but took their protest a step further and occupied a stretch of empty land along the river that had been slated for development and turned it into an informal public place One enters through an opening in the wall and is faced with a series of temporary structures The concrete fencewall is painted with colourful drawings and text The ground is covered in sand thus making the space resemble a beach There is an lsquoAfricanrsquo feel to the space ndash suggested by the nature of the paintings the music

emanating from the cafeteria and also the name of the space ndash YAAM ndash which stands for Young African Arts Market (figures 1 to 3) Naturally the government did not approve of this but it seems to have been tolerated given that there is an overall depression of the real estate market and many investors are waiting until the environment improves But more significantly the activists have secured the support of the Green Party which has been invited to plant trees for example In addition they have also been lobbying for a change in building regulations to enable people to enjoy the river Thus they were able to secure regulations specifying that a distance of 10 m to 50 m from the river should be maintained as public space

Such efforts exist to varying degrees in other parts of the world ndash whereby residents take matters into their own hand and create a kind of alternative urbanity within a cityrsquos

Figures 1 and 2enspThe Young African Arts Market ndash YAAM A communal space set apart from the city

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

9BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

fringe spaces that defies what they perceive as an infringement of peoplersquos right to access public amenities such as rivers Similar to what the authors in this issue have been investigating ndash this case demonstrates the increasingly blurred boundaries between formal and informal the potentially posi-tive quality of informal urbanism and a reali-zation that a truly sustainable urban environ-ment cannot be nurtured and maintained without letting city inhabitants have a say in how space can be used and modified Otherwise the obsessive desire for order may ultimately and inadvertently lead to an oppressive environment

NOTES

1emsphtt pwwwholcimfoundationorgT460F07WKInfhtm Accessed 12 January 20112emsphtt piabrnlENactivitiesexhibitions_a n d _ e v e n t s I A B R - - - I n t e r n a t i o n a l -Architecture-Biennale-Rotterdam_0php Accessed 12 January 2011

REFERENCESDavis Mike (2007) Planet of Slums London Versode Certeau Michel (1984) The Practice of Everyday

Life (translated by Steven Rendell) Berkeley CA University of California Press

Dovey Kim (2009) Becoming Places UrbanismArchi-tectureIdentityPower London Routledge

Elsheshtawy Yasser (2008) Transitory sites map-ping Dubairsquos lsquoforgott enrsquo urban public spaces The International Journal of Urban amp Regional Research 32(4) pp 968ndash988

Elsheshtawy Yasser (forthcoming 2011) Litt le spacebig space everyday urbanism in Dubai Brown Journal of World Aff airs

GTZ (2009) Cairorsquos Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials Cairo GTZ

Hou Jeff rey (2010) Insurgent Public Space Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities London Routledge

Jacobs Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities New York Random House

Lefebvre Henry (1991) Critique of Everyday Life London Verso

Sadler Simon (1999) The Situationist City Cam-bridge MA MIT Press

Figure 3enspFringe sett ings exist along the river ndash constructed by activists

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

8 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

valuable real estate and as such it was no surprise that the Berlin government aimed at turning this into an investment opportunity by selling the land along the river to investors ndash foreign and German A series of high-rise towers that would have turned this area into a private space for office workers and corporations was proposed Promptly a group of activists rallied against this project They did not just stop there but took their protest a step further and occupied a stretch of empty land along the river that had been slated for development and turned it into an informal public place One enters through an opening in the wall and is faced with a series of temporary structures The concrete fencewall is painted with colourful drawings and text The ground is covered in sand thus making the space resemble a beach There is an lsquoAfricanrsquo feel to the space ndash suggested by the nature of the paintings the music

emanating from the cafeteria and also the name of the space ndash YAAM ndash which stands for Young African Arts Market (figures 1 to 3) Naturally the government did not approve of this but it seems to have been tolerated given that there is an overall depression of the real estate market and many investors are waiting until the environment improves But more significantly the activists have secured the support of the Green Party which has been invited to plant trees for example In addition they have also been lobbying for a change in building regulations to enable people to enjoy the river Thus they were able to secure regulations specifying that a distance of 10 m to 50 m from the river should be maintained as public space

Such efforts exist to varying degrees in other parts of the world ndash whereby residents take matters into their own hand and create a kind of alternative urbanity within a cityrsquos

Figures 1 and 2enspThe Young African Arts Market ndash YAAM A communal space set apart from the city

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

9BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

fringe spaces that defies what they perceive as an infringement of peoplersquos right to access public amenities such as rivers Similar to what the authors in this issue have been investigating ndash this case demonstrates the increasingly blurred boundaries between formal and informal the potentially posi-tive quality of informal urbanism and a reali-zation that a truly sustainable urban environ-ment cannot be nurtured and maintained without letting city inhabitants have a say in how space can be used and modified Otherwise the obsessive desire for order may ultimately and inadvertently lead to an oppressive environment

NOTES

1emsphtt pwwwholcimfoundationorgT460F07WKInfhtm Accessed 12 January 20112emsphtt piabrnlENactivitiesexhibitions_a n d _ e v e n t s I A B R - - - I n t e r n a t i o n a l -Architecture-Biennale-Rotterdam_0php Accessed 12 January 2011

REFERENCESDavis Mike (2007) Planet of Slums London Versode Certeau Michel (1984) The Practice of Everyday

Life (translated by Steven Rendell) Berkeley CA University of California Press

Dovey Kim (2009) Becoming Places UrbanismArchi-tectureIdentityPower London Routledge

Elsheshtawy Yasser (2008) Transitory sites map-ping Dubairsquos lsquoforgott enrsquo urban public spaces The International Journal of Urban amp Regional Research 32(4) pp 968ndash988

Elsheshtawy Yasser (forthcoming 2011) Litt le spacebig space everyday urbanism in Dubai Brown Journal of World Aff airs

GTZ (2009) Cairorsquos Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials Cairo GTZ

Hou Jeff rey (2010) Insurgent Public Space Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities London Routledge

Jacobs Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities New York Random House

Lefebvre Henry (1991) Critique of Everyday Life London Verso

Sadler Simon (1999) The Situationist City Cam-bridge MA MIT Press

Figure 3enspFringe sett ings exist along the river ndash constructed by activists

THEthinspthinspINFORMALthinspthinspTURN

9BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

fringe spaces that defies what they perceive as an infringement of peoplersquos right to access public amenities such as rivers Similar to what the authors in this issue have been investigating ndash this case demonstrates the increasingly blurred boundaries between formal and informal the potentially posi-tive quality of informal urbanism and a reali-zation that a truly sustainable urban environ-ment cannot be nurtured and maintained without letting city inhabitants have a say in how space can be used and modified Otherwise the obsessive desire for order may ultimately and inadvertently lead to an oppressive environment

NOTES

1emsphtt pwwwholcimfoundationorgT460F07WKInfhtm Accessed 12 January 20112emsphtt piabrnlENactivitiesexhibitions_a n d _ e v e n t s I A B R - - - I n t e r n a t i o n a l -Architecture-Biennale-Rotterdam_0php Accessed 12 January 2011

REFERENCESDavis Mike (2007) Planet of Slums London Versode Certeau Michel (1984) The Practice of Everyday

Life (translated by Steven Rendell) Berkeley CA University of California Press

Dovey Kim (2009) Becoming Places UrbanismArchi-tectureIdentityPower London Routledge

Elsheshtawy Yasser (2008) Transitory sites map-ping Dubairsquos lsquoforgott enrsquo urban public spaces The International Journal of Urban amp Regional Research 32(4) pp 968ndash988

Elsheshtawy Yasser (forthcoming 2011) Litt le spacebig space everyday urbanism in Dubai Brown Journal of World Aff airs

GTZ (2009) Cairorsquos Informal Areas Between Urban Challenges and Hidden Potentials Cairo GTZ

Hou Jeff rey (2010) Insurgent Public Space Guerrilla Urbanism and the Remaking of Contemporary Cities London Routledge

Jacobs Jane (1961) The Death and Life of Great American Cities New York Random House

Lefebvre Henry (1991) Critique of Everyday Life London Verso

Sadler Simon (1999) The Situationist City Cam-bridge MA MIT Press

Figure 3enspFringe sett ings exist along the river ndash constructed by activists

INFORMALthinspthinspURBANISM

10 BUILTthinspthinspENVIRONMENTthinspthinspthinspVOLthinspthinsp37thinspthinspthinspNOthinspthinsp1

Sennett Richard (1977) The Fall of Public Man New York Knopf

Simone Abdoumaliq (2010) City Life from Jakarta to Dakar Movements at the Crossroads London Routledge

Sorkin Michael (2009) Twenty Minutes in Man-hatt an London Reaktion Books

Stevens Quentin (2007) The Ludic City Exploring the Potential of Public Spaces London Routledge

UN-Habitat (2007) The State of the Worldrsquos Cities Report 20062007 London Earthscan

Zukin Sharon (2010) Naked City The Death and Life of Authentic Urban Places New York Oxford University Press