Speaker
Description
Cities in the global South are often characterised by informality – unregistered, unmonitored, or untaxed businesses, and unpaid, underpaid, or unprotected labour still persist. With the arrival of various digital platforms in this context, however, digital technology has emerged as an important solution to more rightfully regulate such informal practices. As such, what distinguishes the Southern digital platforms from the Northern ones is that they penetrate informal economies, at least at first glance making some informal practices more efficient and transparent (e.g., mobile money and app-based motorcycle taxi services), as well as connecting the poor or marginalised populations to formal and global economies. In other words, digital technology, especially mobile and blockchain technology, possesses the potential to monitor the un-monitored, tax the untaxed, or include the excluded. On the one hand, developing cities are catching up with the digital turn more quickly than expected, where digital platforms play significant roles not only in solving the informality problem (if one defines it as a problem) but also in bridging the gap between informal actors and formal systems. On the other hand, however, the informal actors behind such digitalised informal services are still prone to marginal positions or precarious conditions. At this interface, whether this new innovation will contribute to the processes towards formalisation, or it will rather end up aggravating existing informality is the key debate which calls for more attention and further discussion from a variety of disciplines including urban planning, information systems and global development. Drawing on evidence from global case studies, and providing a more problem-driven perspective, this poster presents a quick snapshot of how digital platforms are reshaping or rather perpetuating urban informality in cities of the global South.
References
No references in the abstract, but for related readings:
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| Keywords | ICT4D, Digital Platforms, Urban Informality, Inclusive Planning |
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