Ananya Roy
1970
Indian-American urbanist who studies informality not as a failure but as a mode of governing.
Roy argues that informal housing is not what happens where the state does not reach, but a decision of the state: tolerated here, demolished there, legalised when convenient. Informality is not the absence of rules but rules applied unevenly, and that unevenness is the instrument.
Hence her critique of «subaltern urbanism», which romanticises the endurance of poor neighbourhoods, and her insistence that urban theories written from New York or London do not describe Kolkata or Jakarta well — where most of the planet's urban population lives.
On Ananya Roy in this archive
- Urban economy
Urban informality and state power
How state power and legality shape urban informality and poverty. Understand the relationship between regulation…
Ananya Roy 3 min read - Urban geopolitics
Global South: Who experiments in our cities globally?
A promotional video shows glass towers rising from the sea, off the coast of Lagos. Clean avenues, blue skies,…
Jennifer Robinson 3 min read - Urban economy
Ananya Roy Critiques Microfinance in 'Poverty Capital'
Ananya Roy critiques microfinance's role in perpetuating poverty, focusing on global capital's impact on urban areas.
Ananya Roy 2 min read - Urban geopolitics
Urbanization in the Global South: Challenges and Opportunities
Urbanization in the Global South has followed patterns that differ from those observed in more developed countries
AbdouMaliq Simone 3 min read - Public space
Decolonizing Urban Space: Creating More Inclusive Cities
The decolonization of urban space is a process that seeks to transform cities—especially in the Global South—by…
Jennifer Robinson 3 min read - Urban economy
Informal Economies and Settlements: Urban Challenges in the Global South
Informal economies and informal settlements are deeply intertwined with the urban structure of cities in the Global…
AbdouMaliq Simone 2 min read
