ABSTRACT
In 2012 the United Nations reported that 863 million people globally live in informal settlements (United Nations 2012) 2 , located primarily in cities of the global south. Although this figure is contested because we lack accurate and rigorous data, nonetheless, we know that citizens living in informal contexts lack tenure security, are inadequately provided with basic services and infrastructure, and have housing conditions that are neither safe nor secure. Global and national processes of economic restructuring and a related lack of employment opportunities and low pay shape global southern cities; moreover, informal settlement residents are often excluded from and marginalized in the city by class, and/or formality, processes leading to the increasing stratification of urban society in the global south. As a result of deprivation and disadvantage, many forms of community organization have emerged within informal settlements to negotiate resources from local government and to further the interests of informal settlement residents.
