Urban Informality and Exceptional Situation:

State Sovereignty and the Control of the Urban Bottom People

Abstract

    This paper consists of six parts. First, it presents the main points in relation to the traditional binomial classification of urban formality and informality based on the overurbanization theory. Second, it presents the main points in relation to the new informality theory developed by Ananya Roy and others, who criticize the traditional informality theory by emphasizing the political process by which the state constructs the binomial classification of urban formality and informality. Third, this paper reinforces Royʼs informality theory by clarifying the role of state sovereignty in constructing the binomial classification of urban formality and informality. Fourth, it introduces the concepts of exceptional situation and Homo Sacer developed by Giorgio Agamben to clarify the position of state sovereignty in Royʼs informality theory. Fifth, it proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing the political process of constructing formality and informality more clearly by emphasizing the decisive role of state sovereignty in the process. This framework aims to join Royʼs theory and Agambenʼs theory, to reconstruct the abstract socio-philosophical Homo Sacer theory of Agamben as an empirical theory for analyzing the urban bottom people, and to construct an overall framework to analyze the relationships among the state, informality, exceptional situations, and Homo Sacer. Thus, it is an attempt to create a critical urban theory in a time of globalization and neoliberalism. Finally, it presents theoretical issues that require further clarification and points out that this framework should be used to analyze the real-world political process of constructing the binomial classification of urban formality and informality.