Urban Assemblages, (In)formality, and Housing in the Global North

Abstract

Geographers and urbanists focused on assemblages in the Global South have significantly advanced urban theory, investigating politics, policy, everyday practices of (in)formality—infrastructure, water, sanitation, housing, education, health—how (non)human actors, networks, practices, ideas, and learning constitute urban life. This article outlines new directions for this agenda, presenting research into comparative geographies of Live-in-Guardians—“temporary” living, often in nonresidential buildings, based on licensed tenure—undertaken in London, Dublin, Amsterdam, and New York City that considers water sprinklers, light and air, employment, money, travel, ghosts, family, love, nuns, intimacy, slamming doors, echoes, friendship, aesthetics, leaks, draughts, comfort, sharing, heat and cold, housing markets, consumer culture, and so on. We engage with (non)human assemblages to offer new theoretical and empirical insights into relational politics, legislation, policy, (in)mobilities, (un)comfortable materialities, and more-than-representation, which we argue are key to understanding (in)formal housing in the Global North.