Beyond a state-centric approach to urban informality: Interactions between Delhi’s middle class and the informal service sector

Since the ‘discovery’ of the informality in the early 1970s, its conceptualization has been significantly expanded beyond economic activity to include land-use and service provision. While informality often refers to that which is beyond the reach of the state, urban scholars focused on cities in the global South have shown that governments actively contribute to its production. This article presents original research on relations between middle class residents and informal-sector workers in Delhi, India. It demonstrates that middle-class associations establish localized regimes that confer legitimacy on the work of street hawkers and waste workers, their use of urban space and the provision of services (e.g. waste collection). Thus, the state is one actor among many that seeks to govern cities, and in many cases localized governance regimes are imposed by non-state actors. I argue that the state should not serve as a key reference point for identifying informality. Instead scholars should focus on governance regimes imposed by state and non-state powerbrokers, and conceptualize informality as that which remains unregulated.