Fictional, yet real: Worlding informality in cities of the Global South

Jeroen Klink

Environment and Planning A, 2026, vol. 58, issue 4, 646-656

Abstract: In this note, I discuss the temporal dimension of informal settlement planning and development through a theoretical lens of expectations and decision-making. Prevailing approaches tend to generate a conceptual impasse. While orthodox economics is organized around rational expectations, present-value accounting, and the alignment between planning and realized outcomes, political economy emphasizes fictitious capital as a speculative claim on an inherently unknowable future. I develop the concept of fictional expectations—that is, expectations that have the potential to create a world of their own—as a way out of this impasse and contribute to revisable mid-level theories on the relational production of contemporary informal settlements and their entanglements with urban space. Using the trajectory of favela upgrading in Brazil, I illustrate the potential of this concept for “worlding†informal settlements in the urban Global South.

Keywords: fictional expectations; worlding; favelas; social urbanism; entrepreneurial urbanism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:envira:v:58:y:2026:i:4:p:646-656

DOI: 10.1177/0308518X261432602

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