Book launch of 'Informal Settlements of the Global South'

This event does not require registration.

With case studies that span the globe, from the US-Mexico borderlands to the Calais encampment in France, and from refugee camps in Kenya, Uganda, and Bangladesh to ‘informal’ enclaves in the cities of India, China, Brazil, Nigeria, and South Africa, this book challenges current global perspectives on human settling, mobility, and placemaking. Its content is not just relevant to one region but to the entire world, making it a must-read for anyone interested in the global dynamics of human settlements.

Together, the 15 essays in this book question the validity of the conventional hegemonic divisions of Global North vs. Global South and ‘formal’ vs. ‘informal’ in terms of geographic presence, transborder performances, and the ideological inter-dependence of Northern and Southern spaces, spatial practices, and the uniformity of authoritative enforcements. The book, whose authors come from all over the world, uses ‘Global South’ as a methodological apparatus to ask the ‘Southern’ question of settling and unsettling across the globe. Crucially, the studies reveal the sentiments, resourcefulness, and agency of those positioned by the powerful within the dichotomies of formal/informal, legitimate/ illegal, privileged/marginalized, etc. This emphasis on agency and resourcefulness can inspire hope and empowerment in the reader.

By focusing on hitherto invisible events and untold stories of adaptation, negotiation, and contestation by people and their communities, this volume of essays takes the ongoing North-South debate in new directions. It opens up fresh areas of inquiry for the reader. It offers a unique perspective that will intrigue and stimulate the curiosity of researchers and students of architecture, planning, politics, and sociology, as well as built environment professionals.

The launch will be introduced and moderated by Dr Paroj Banerjee and Dr Azadeh Mashayekhi.    

Panel Members

Gihan Karunaratne is a Sri Lankan-born British architect who studied at the Royal College of Arts and Bartlett School of Architecture. He has taught and lectured in Architecture, Urban Design, and Interior Design in the UK, Sri Lanka, and China. He writes and researches extensively on architecture and urban design. Gihan’s current research interests are in architecture and urban conditions within cities, which are undergoing constant physical, economic, or social changes in urban living patterns. He has researched and explored the city's underbelly in many of his projects in detail, specifically focusing on non-conformist marginalized communities. From urban transition courses and temporality in the Global South, he remains actively engaged in urban research focusing on informal settlements and communities.

Photographer Henk Wildschut’s work is characterized by a contemplative and often distant view of the people and situations he photographs. This adds a balance and monumental quality to his photographs, inviting viewers to reflect further on the subject. In 2005, he started a long-term project around European illegal immigration. When visiting several refugee camps worldwide, Henk was intrigued by the need for domesticity. Small gardens around the tents became a universal symbol of hope and resilience. 

Nishat Awan is an architecture and visual culture professor at UCL Urban Laboratory, the Bartlett (UK). Situated between art and architectural practice, Nishat Awan’s research and writing explore displacement, migration, and border regimes. She is interested in modes of spatial representation, mainly digital representation, and the limits of witnessing as a form of ethical engagement with distant places. She led the ERC-funded project, Topological Atlas, on the counter-geographies of migrants as they encountered the border security apparatus. Her book, Diasporic Agencies (Routledge, 2016), addressed how architecture and urbanism can respond to the consequences of increasing migration. She has written on alternative modes of architectural production in the co-authored book Spatial Agency (Routledge, 2011) and the co-edited book Trans-Local-Act (aaa-peprav, 2011).