Cairo's street vendors have benefited from the turmoil of post-revolutionary Egypt, and the city's governor has proven more willing to take into account their needs, but their demands still fall on deaf ears at the national level. Does Vandousselaere reports.
Zach Hyman travels to Wanyuan in China's Sichuan Province to see the creativity of the drivers of agricultural vehicles as the landscape urbanises around them.
Sonia Dias argues for a holistic approach to solid waste management that recognises the economic and environmental benefits of including informal waste pickers in planning.
Cara Courage shows how an enlightened government can recognise an informal sector as an economic asset and support its workers, as is the case with Brighton's support of its arts and creative industries.
Whereas governments are quick to scapegoat the chop bar owners of Accra, in reality they spend onerous sums of money on sanitation, an effort which should be supported by health policy.
Accessing the space, power and storage facilities one needs to work as a street vendor poses a number of logistical problems. Zach Hyman visits informal workers in Yangon to learn how they solve them.
Slum neighbourhoods are teeming with industry and commerce, yet the policy sphere still tends to treat them as residential spaces alone. What are the consequences of this misconception, and is it time to invoke a right to space, not just of housing?
Zach Hyman is a Fulbright scholar conducting research into the dynamics of grassroots innovation of agricultural machinery and its changing role…
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The Global Urbanist is an online magazine reviewing urban affairs and urban development issues in cities throughout the developed and developing world.
Its readers are drawn from the urban policy and international development sectors, and include urban planners, officers in local, national or international government agencies, civil society leaders, and researchers.
