Theorizing and Practicing Planning from the South: Informality in the Discourse

Emerging scholarships within urban planning have questioned the universalized notion of planning theories and their ability to respond to urban issues in the South. The southern planning perspective has espoused theorizing planning ideas based on situated experiences of southern cities—including their urbanism and social conflicts. I argue that the southern planning perspectives take their foundational epistemological turn from the conflict of urban planning and informality. Focusing on African cities, this review paper contributes to planning theory by exploring the centrality of informality in southern perspectives and further discusses informality toward a critical “theory about planning.”