2026/05/10 by Brandon Marc Finn · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Urban Planning and Governance #Water Governance and Infrastructure #Geographies of human-animal interactions
paper · doi:10.1177/20438206261449228
openalex publication_date 2026/05/10 · openalex created_date 2026/05/12 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
This essay considers the political potential of informality as a force for challenging authoritarianism and creating more equal and democratic outcomes. Building on Bandauko's concept of ‘subaltern surveillance,’ this essay demonstrates how informal actors leverage their marginalized position and bottom-up efforts to confront state repression and claim the right to the city. Grassroots initiatives are inextricably linked to ‘autogestion’ – the radical self-management of socio-spatial production in pursuit of democracy and popular sovereignty. Because informality can constitute the praxis of autogestion, its global prevalence suggests an unrealized potential as a political project in research and practice. Drawing on emerging literature on political informality , I aim to re-energize scholarship within and beyond human and urban geography, reflecting the urgency of informality as a continuing force in global spatial transformation.