The International Contemporary Urban Issues Conference is aiming at fostering discussions of theory and research on urban issues by DAKAM (Eastern Mediterranean Academic Research Center). Focusing on a multidimensional urban phenomenon, this international conference aims to deepen the understanding of informality by opening it to discussion with contributions from various disciplines like architecture, urban planning, sociology, history, economy and anthropology.

Emergence of informality as a concept in scholarly discussions can be traced back to the 1970s when “the informal sector” was first used by ILO reports on employment and poverty. The results of the global economic restructuring -such as the flexibilization of production and employment relations, deterioration of collective responsibility and welfare functions of the state- damage the security of urban poor in terms of housing and working. Meanwhile, recent socio economic public policies seem to intensify the condition of informality. Now, it is widely accepted that informal way of living is a necessity for the urban poor as a survival strategy. Hence, informal work and housing constitute a significant proportion of urban economies and policies.

What is new in the neo-liberal age is the extending scope of informality. Today, the boundary between the formal and informal is blurred more than before since most urbanites, including the middle classes, experience both formal and informal encounters in their everyday life. Besides, even the urban rich contribute to informality by the development projects on the invaded peripheral land. Consequently, contemporary informality affects not just a marginal segment of the society but a majority of people living in urban space.

DAKAM’s CUI 2013 symposium offers a platform for specialists and young academics to interact and share knowledge with non-governmental organizations, businesses and policy makers, as well as fellow researchers. These academic activities serve to bring the gap between research and practice, expanding the opportunities for positive cross-sectoral collaborations in response to the challenging realities of cities in the 21st century.