In the third of a series of photo essays from Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing, Carlin Carr explores how workers in Bangkok’s informal economy came together in a collective movement to advocate for their labour rights.
Leslie Vryenhoek shares the stories of domestic workers from South Africa that highlight the advances and challenges of bringing organisation to this traditionally hidden form of urban economic activity.
Over the next few weeks, The Global Urbanist, in collaboration with WIEGO will publish six photo essays that take us inside the daily lives of women working in the informal economy.
Carlin Carr introduces members of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad. The organisation has been supporting informal workers to improve their working conditions.
Drew Reed takes us on a walk through downtown Buenos Aires to see how the mayor Mauricio Macri's policy of formalising informal traders is being undermined by the free trade principles he normally espouses.
Cairo's street vendors have benefited from the turmoil of post-revolutionary Egypt, but their demands still fall on deaf ears at the national level.
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.
Bronwyn Kotzen is a qualified architect, and urban researcher at the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI), a Wits University affiliate.
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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.
