5th ISA Forum of Sociology (6-11 July 2025)

Rapid urbanisation and informality are features of many developing countries (UN-Habitat, 2020). However, the urbanisation process in much of the Global South occurs under high unemployment, high informality, poor housing and poverty rate. Over 60% of the global labour force operates in the informal economy/sector. About 70% of those working in low-and middle-income countries work in the informal sector (ILO, 2018; WIEGO, 2022). Thus informality in the Global South contributes tremendously to urban life (Azunre, et al., 2021; Cobinnah and Finn, 2022; UN-Habitat, 2022). Despite its crucial role, the informal sector faces many challenges. Informal workers are among those most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the inability of the formal economy to provide sufficient jobs for a greater proportion of urban dwellers, the urban informal economy/sector continues to grow in many parts of the world.

This session invites papers that make conceptual and methodological contributions to the literature on urbanisation and the informal economy/sector, the relationship between the informal sector and the state, challenges to the urban informal sector, the urban informal sector and the COVID-19 pandemic, migration and the urban informal sector, social protection and urban informal workers, the urban informal sector and the future of work, the urban informal sector and digital technology, housing and health of informal workers. The session is open to other related topics on the urban informal economy/sector especially in the Global South.