IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ijurrs/v43y2019i3p563-568.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Myth of Formality in the Global North: Informality‐as‐Innovation in Dutch Governance

Author

Listed:
  • Rivke Jaffe
  • Martijn Koster

Abstract

Why has urban informality in the global North received so little attention? We suggest that this neglect can be explained in part by the tendency of scholarship to reproduce the myth of Northern formality: the widely held belief that informality occurs only in corrupt and clientelist ‘developing countries’. This myth has allowed activities and connections that would generally be framed as clientelist or corrupt in the global South to be rebranded as policy innovation in Western Europe and North America. In this brief paper, we challenge the myth of Northern formality by focusing on two empirical cases of informality in Dutch governance that demonstrate how the state frames the toleration and deliberate use of informality as policy innovations. Specifically, we focus on strategic, uncodified and non‐transparent deviation from legal procedure in order to achieve compliance and/or effectiveness. Relying on ethnographic methods and secondary sources, we discuss firstly the governance of Amsterdam's red light district and secondly participatory infrastructure projects in the surrounding province of North Holland. The first case highlights the strategic non‐enforcement or non‐application of laws, while the second case points to the use of personalized relationships and non‐transparency in participatory governance.

Suggested Citation

  • Rivke Jaffe & Martijn Koster, 2019. "The Myth of Formality in the Global North: Informality‐as‐Innovation in Dutch Governance," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(3), pages 563-568, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:43:y:2019:i:3:p:563-568
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12706
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12706
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1468-2427.12706?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Abel Polese & Gian Marco Moisé & Olha Lysa & Tanel Kerikmäe & Arnis Sauka & Oleksandra Seliverstova, 2022. "Presenting the results of the shadow economy survey in Ukraine while reflecting on the future(s) of informality studies," Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(1), pages 101-123, January.
    2. Tali Ziv, 2022. "THE PRACTICE OF INFORMALITY: Hustling, Anticipating and Refusing in the Postindustrial City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(5), pages 807-821, September.
    3. Valeria Guarneros‐Meza & Alke Jenss, 2022. "TRANSFORMED SECURITY PRACTICES: Informalization in the Production of Hegemony and Place," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 614-630, July.
    4. Maria Atuesta Ortiz, 2023. "GAMONALES WHO MAKE A CITY: Intimate Interactions in City Building," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 90-105, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:43:y:2019:i:3:p:563-568. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0309-1317 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.