In/formal Marketplaces

EXPERIMENTS WITH URBAN RECONFIGURATION

From nomadic labour to online services and from street food kitchens to pop-up shops, informality is on the rise as never before. Its transformative power can be seen in the new ways we produce, consume and live, with commerce playing a crucial role in these changes. The resulting tension between the formal and the informal is nowhere more evident than in the struggles over contested marketplaces.

This talk – on the occassion of the launch of the eponymous book – addresses the formal-informal linkages that have given shape to some of the world’s largest and most unique open-air marketplaces. Through diverse visual analyses of markets in cities such as Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Dubai and New York we seek to explore the connections between informal trade, neoliberal governance and urban development.