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Mapping Legalities: Urbanisation, Law and Informal Work

Mapping Legalities: Urbanisation, Law and Informal Work

Author: Thomas Coggin; Roopa Madhav
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 9781032471594

Published In: November 2025
Format: Paperback
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only
Hardback Edition ISBN: 9781032471587

List Price: HKD 558.87

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Description
Contents

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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 globally 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.

Introduction

1. Urban regulation for self-employed informal workers

Sally Roever & Michael Rogan

2. Disambiguating legalities: Street vending, law, and boundary work in Mexico City

Tiana Bakić Hayden

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

Teresa Marchiori & Pamhidzai Bamu

4. Differential effects of vending formalisation in New York City, USA

Ryan Thomas Devlin

5. Local government regulations and the dispossession of urban informal vendors in Delhi, India

Ankit K. Singh & Roshni Yadav

6. Impact of new planning policies on sustenance and inclusivity of street trading in Dhaka: A critical review of Detailed Area Plan 2016-2035

Nabanita Islam

7. Advocating for a Livelihood-Centric Master Plan: Learnings from Delhi

Malavika Narayan, Shalini Sinha, Avi Singh Majithia

8. Turbulent transformations and urban undesirables: Revanchist urban transition and street-based sex work in Bangalore

Neethi P & Anant Kamath

9. Overlooked mobility: Domestic workers commuting in Bogotá, Medellín, and Sao Paulo

Valentina Montoya Robledo

10. New perspectives on the work of waste pickers: the construction of a “recycling node” in Mercedes, Argentina

Verónica V. Puricelli

11. Pursuing aspirations for decent sanitation work: How informal workers navigate the universe of rules that shape sanitation practices in urban Africa

Julian Walker

Adriana Allen

Ibrahim Bangura

Pascale Hofmann

Wilbard Kombe

Nelly Leblond

Tatu Limbumba

Catarina Simões Mavila

Claudy Vouhé

Julia Wesely

12. Urban informal workers’ Covid-19 compliance: Evidence on social capital and enforcement politics from Indonesia

Ying Gao