forms of spatial organisations are similar, even though the historical, economic and cultural contexts cannot be compared. The Urban Typhoon workshops in Shimokitazawa and Koliwada-Dharavi are described in chapter 4 from a participant perspective. I retrace the history of the workshop, in the context of the activism of local groups and describe how it was conceptualised and who were the people that organised it in both neighbourhoods. I merge my own analysis and notes with the collective output of the workshop and describe both the neighbourhoods through the eyes of the workshop participants. I explain some of the planning ideas that emerged from it and try to give a feel of its atmosphere and some of the questions that arose regarding its methodology and purpose. Chapters 5 and 6 describe the larger political-economic context within which the neighbourhoods of Shimokitazawa and Dharavi are evolving. The work of Saskia Sassen, Manuel Castells and Susan Fainstein on the interactions between global communication networks, finance and cities, provides a framework to understand the pressures exercised on megacities at the age of globalization and financial deregulation. I then introduce the concept of the based on communication theory of the city and “urban system” Melvin Webber’s Anthony critique of the rural-urban conceptual division. Leeds’ analysis of the urban roots of financial crises is used to expose the way David Harvey’s latest speculative bubbles affect neighbourhoods and how the nexus between government and developers has turned the government into a real estate broker. I use specific examples from London, New York, Tokyo and Mumbai to illustrate the larger processes at work. I argue that processes of restructuration are legitimised by the narratives of the global city and the city. In chapter 6, I develop a conceptual framework to understand the inherent logic of neighbourhoods such as Shimokitazawa and Dharavi. This concept is derived “in-formation” on the one hand from my own ethnographic observations and discussions with the anthropologist Rahul Srivastava. On the other hand, it is based on a critique of the concept of which is used and abused by proponents of the of parts of “informal city”, “rationalisation” the city that are seen as illogical and messy. Based on Keith reflection on the term Hart’s which he coined in the 1970s, I argue that the term is normatively “informal economy”,
forms of spatial organisations are similar, even though the historical, economic and cultural contexts cannot be compared. The Urban Typhoon workshops in Shimokitazawa and Koliwada-Dharavi are described in chapter 4 from a participant perspective. I retrace the history of the workshop, in the context of the activism of local groups and describe how it was conceptualised and who were the people that organised it in both neighbourhoods. I merge my own analysis and notes with the collective output of the workshop and describe both the neighbourhoods through the eyes of the workshop participants. I explain some of the planning ideas that emerged from it and try to give a feel of its atmosphere and some of the questions that arose regarding its methodology and purpose. Chapters 5 and 6 describe the larger political-economic context within which the neighbourhoods of Shimokitazawa and Dharavi are evolving. The work of Saskia Sassen, Manuel Castells and Susan Fainstein on the interactions between global communication networks, finance and cities, provides a framework to understand the pressures exercised on megacities at the age of globalization and financial deregulation. I then introduce the concept of the “urban system” based on Melvin Webber’s communication theory of the city and Anthony Leeds’ critique of the rural-urban conceptual division. David Harvey’s latest analysis of the urban roots of financial crises is used to expose the way speculative bubbles affect neighbourhoods and how the nexus between government and developers has turned the government into a real estate broker. I use specific examples from London, New York, Tokyo and Mumbai to illustrate the larger processes at work. I argue that processes of restructuration are legitimised by the narratives of the global city and the city. In chapter 6, I develop a conceptual framework to understand the inherent logic of neighbourhoods “in-formation” such as Shimokitazawa and Dharavi. This concept is derived on the one hand from my own ethnographic observations and discussions with the anthropologist Rahul Srivastava. On the other hand, it is based on a critique of the concept of “informal city”, which is used and abused by proponents of the “rationalisation” of parts of the city that are seen as illogical and messy. Based on Keith Hart’s reflection on the term “informal economy”, which he coined in the 1970s, I argue that the term is normatively