Informal urbanism and the right to the city: The production of Wenzaizun industrial cluster
(A paper submitted to “Questioning the space of modernity: Informal urbanism and the city” international conference) Introduction Since the turn of the 21 century, a growing body of literature on urban development and city governance has been paid attention to the cities in the Global South, attempting to build alternative epistemologies for urban studies that do not follow the modernist, rationalist, and functional research framework (AlSayyd, 2004; Robinson, 2006; Roy, 2009). By shifting the analytical framework, many researchers have acknowledged that the phenomenon of informal urbanization has extended from the “Third World” to the “First world”, becoming a ubiquitous urban experience throughout the cities in the world (AlSayyad 2004; Davis 2004; Rao 2006; Roy 2005). However, as to what are the causes, effects, and policy implications of informal urbanization in contemporary cities, scholars have offered very diverse accounts. There are generally two