Editorial: Urban Livelihoods: Reframing Theory and Policy

This paper, which also serves as an introduction to the special issue of Environment and Urbanization on urban livelihoods, draws on the WIEGO network’s experience to review the current state of knowledge on the urban informal economy and to identify critical policy issues in relation to the New Urban Agenda, several of which are highlighted in this issue. In Section II, it presents the latest available statistics on the size, composition and contribution of the informal economy in various regions, demonstrating that informal employment is the norm in the global South. Sections III and IV then review theoretical approaches to informality in the economic development and urban studies literatures, identifying important gaps and promising new directions suggested by the articles in this issue. The paper concludes by presenting a framework to think afresh about urban livelihoods and appropriate policy responses to them.