informality often refer implicitly to issues of power
through a focus on particular forms of power relations,
especially between ‘the state’ and ‘the community’.
There is still a tendency to take a zero sum or binary
view that sees low-income residents as the ‘losers’ in
power relations. Critical geographic approaches to
place offer a response to this: by focusing on the
complexities of power in place, it may be possible to
better understand the intricate, entangled processes
relating to power that occur in urban informal
settlements. The idea of resistance in response to
domination in place underlies critical approaches,
suggesting that ‘people are able to resist the construction
of expectations about practice through place by
using places and their established meanings in
subversive ways’ (