The first large-scale study to compare experiences of protracted displacement to explore how living in cities or camps produce different outcomes for refugees' wellbeing, self-reliance and livelihoods.
Bordering Economies aims to unveil the implications and the scope of refugees’ participation in informal cross-border trade between their countries of origin and hosting areas close to the frontier across three continents.
Slums and informal settlements are often vibrant centres of economic activity, with a mesh of small-scale enterprises and home-based work. This report explores their role in participatory slum upgrading.
The urban informal economy’s critical role in poverty-reduction, peace-building, and economic recovery in post-crisis or conflict cities, is explored through this impact-focussed research.
Access to finance for micro- and informal economy enterprises, is an important stepping stone to securing livelihoods and economic growth, but needs improved regulation and consumer protection, explored through this study.
Fair trade governance operates in formalised supply but much of the fair trade movement aims to support own-account workers and micro-enterprises often operating in the informal economy.
Adopting a rights-based framework, this research explores the evolution and impacts of policies affecting street traders in two Latin American cities, Cusco and Quito.
Street traders in post-revolution Cairo and Tunis faced many challenges. This research examined whether unrest and insecurity made trading more precarious, or whether the uprising brought a new legitimacy to trading.
This research seeks to understand the risks and vulnerabilities to urban livelihoods operating in plural and contradictory legal and regulatory environments.
This project explored the effect of the 2008-09 global recession on exports of garments and small manufactured goods from Guangzhou to street traders in Lomé, Togo, that demonstrated the precarious growth of the China-Africa trade.
Cusco, Peru, is a city where children’s involvement in the urban informal sector is particularly visible, and this study investigates the geography of children in informal trading in the city.
This research uses the lens of the urban livelihoods framework to examine how poor people, both street traders and other informal sector operators, access and use public space to support their livelihoods.
These research projects in Guangzhou demonstrate how Chinese and African traders are creating a ‘third tier’ of globalization, through individual entrepreneurship and initiative, creating value chains that are neither producer nor consumer-led.
