Comprising cartographies, diagrams, architectural drawings, time graphs, textual and photographic material, this atlas offers multi-angle perspectives of the urban ecologies instigated by these sites. To this end, it highlights particular modalities of informal markets in relation to a wider set of contemporary concerns:
• Studies on the relational structures of informal markets address the intersection of graduated m o b i l i t y with urban spatial organisation.
• Studies on the transient ecologies of informal markets investigate local manifestations of provisional l a n d u s e produced by shifting patterns of global socio-political organisation.
• Studies on the legal architectures of informal markets examine the interrelationships between t r a n s n a t i o n a l i t y and new technologies of government and self-organisation.
In addition to field studies carried out by the Other Markets research team, this atlas includes a growing number of studies by other researchers into informal markets across the globe, such as the study by architecture collective opaq into the Four Tigers Market in Budapest, Hungary or by Caroline Humphrey and Vera Skvirskaja into the 7 Kilometer container market in Odessa, Ukraine.
Together, these studies support the development of a trans-disciplinary framework on the catalytic potential of informal markets as politics in matter, as a form of political conflictual practice that transfers values and ideas into the realm of urban action.
Call for Contributions
Promoting open discourse about the politics of urban informality, we welcome contributions to this atlas by researchers, artists or activists about the architectures and socio-political workings of informal markets across the globe.
If you wish to add your textual or visual material to this online collection of case studies, please contact the research team.
