COLONIALITY AND INFORMALITY IN UNEVEN URBANISATION IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH

Abstract

This article critically analyzes urban informality as a structural operator of urbanization in peripheral formations of Latin America, with emphasis on Brazil. It articulates the concepts of patrimonialism, state selectivity, and spatial coloniality to demonstrate how informality constitutes the hegemonic logic of unequal and racialized urban production. Based on a qualitative, deductive, and exploratory approach rooted in Latin American critical geography, the study employs bibliographic review and hermeneutic analysis to interpret forms of territorial governance and environmental injustice. It argues that informality is not a failure or absence but a political and technological rationality selectively operated by the state and capital. In conclusion, the article advocates for the need to refound Latin American urban-regional thought through situated categories that acknowledge subaltern rationalities and insurgent knowledge produced in popular territories.