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Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality

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  • Monika Streule
  • Ozan Karaman
  • Lindsay Sawyer
  • Christian Schmid

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of popular urbanization to describe a specific urbanization process based on collective initiatives, self‐organization and the activities of inhabitants. We understand popular urbanization as an urban strategy through which an urban territory is produced, transformed and appropriated by the people. This concept results from a theoretically guided and empirically grounded comparison of Mexico City, Istanbul and Lagos. Based on postcolonial critiques of urban theory and on the epistemologies of planetary urbanization, we bring urbanization processes in these urban regions into conversation with each other through a multidimensional theoretical framework inspired by Henri Lefebvre focusing on material interaction, territorial regulation, and everyday experience. In this way, popular urbanization emerged as a distinct urbanization process, which we identified in all three contexts. While this process is often subsumed under the broader concept of ‘urban informality’, we suggest that it may be helpful to distinguish popular urbanization as primarily led by the people, while commodification and state agencies play minor roles. As popular urbanization unfolds in diverse ways dependent upon the wider urban context, specific political constellations and actions, it results in a variety of spatial outcomes and temporal trajectories. This is therefore a revisable and open concept. In proposing the concept of popular urbanization for further examination, we seek to contribute to the collective development of a decentered vocabulary of urbanization.

Suggested Citation

  • Monika Streule & Ozan Karaman & Lindsay Sawyer & Christian Schmid, 2020. "Popular Urbanization: Conceptualizing Urbanization Processes Beyond Informality," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 652-672, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:44:y:2020:i:4:p:652-672
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.12872
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    3. Kockelkorn, Anne & Schmid, Christian & Streule, Monika & Wong, Kit Ping, 2023. "Peripheralization through mass housing urbanization in Hong Kong, Mexico City, and Paris," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 118065, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Qu, Yanbo & Li, Yan & Zhao, Weiying & Zhan, Lingyun, 2023. "Does the rural housing land system reform model meeting the needs of farmers improve the welfare of farmers?," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. João Tonucci, 2023. "PROPERTY‐LED INFORMALITY: Shifting Informal Land Development from Popular Housing to Middle‐Class and Elite Speculation in Belo Horizonte," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(4), pages 527-545, July.
    6. Yangfei Huang & Xiaomin Jiang & Yong Chen, 2023. "Analysis of the Spatial-Temporal Evolution of Urbanization Quality in Zhejiang Province, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-15, February.
    7. Cieślak Iwona & Górecka Kamila, 2021. "An evaluation of urbanisation processes in suburban zones using land-cover data and fuzzy set theory," Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Sciendo, vol. 54(54), pages 49-62, December.
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    9. Brianna Castro, 2023. "BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE: Heterogeneous Governance, Claims Making and Forced Eviction in a Megacity," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1), pages 23-38, January.
    10. Deen Sharp, 2022. "Haphazard urbanisation: Urban informality, politics and power in Egypt," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(4), pages 734-749, March.
    11. Run Tang & Xin Guan & Junfan Zhu & Bo Liu & Zeyu Wang & Fanbao Xie, 2023. "Evaluation of Sustainable City and Old-Age Security Policy Intervention in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-15, April.
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    13. Asa Roast, 2022. "THEORY FROM EMPTY LAND: Informal Commoning Outside/Within Economies and Ecologies of the Urban," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 387-404, May.

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