This year’s symposium will be divided into four sessions, including three presentation sessions and a debate forum to end the day. There will also be a book launching as the result of 2014’s Confronting Informality Symposium. Brief description of each sessions is as followings.

Session 1: Exclusion in Urbanism
This model of governance tends to exclude inhabitants from planning processes, informality takes place. There is an urgency in changing the structures of the cities, but there is no support (either economic or social) from the local government. In this case, communities start taking lead in participatory processes, starting by bottom-up actions and reactions against certain type of urban living.

Session 2: Governance in Transition
In transition processes, the local governments don’t have the financial resources to confront informality, but take actions by involving NGOs and interdisciplinary groups, which are the ones working on strategies and ways to include society into the planning process, with the aim to provide them maximum coverage of basic services.

Session 3: Inclusive Urbanism in Practice
At this stage, the governance model is socially inclusive, and involves community into a series of participatory processes of planning and development.  The government takes a side on helping inhabitants by asking them what they need, want, and what they can do, in order to improve the current situation. The strategies start dialogue with the local inhabitants, take actions on what they need and want, and includes them as an essential part of the process of design for the expected future.

Session 4: Debate Forum
Our general objective is to understand,discuss and contribute to the discourse of informality.Through this debate forum, we would like to raise awareness about the processes of informality in different parts of the world, its causes and consequences and how they are addressed through a spatial perspective. The debate will provide a platform for ideas exchange, networking, and further reflection on the theme of informality.

We are publishing our speaker’s profile gradually. Do not miss it, hit the yellow button below!