informality

Informality is a term used across disciplines to describe processes, practices, or structures that operate outside formal rules, institutions, or standardized expectations. In linguistics and everyday social life it denotes casual, intimate, or unregulated speech and behavior. In economics and urban studies it refers to activities, sectors, or settlements that are not registered, taxed, or governed by formal authorities.

Forms and domains: The informal economy includes jobs and businesses not recorded for taxation or regulation; informal housing and informal settlements are residential spaces lacking formal tenure or infrastructure; informal governance encompasses social norms and customary practices that operate without codified law. Informal language covers slang, colloquialisms, reduced speech forms, and context-dependent registers.

Drivers and dynamics: Informality often arises from regulatory barriers, high costs of formalization, or limited state capacity, as well as from social networks and cultural norms that value flexibility. It can provide livelihood options and resilience where formal options are scarce, but it also creates ambiguity around rights, protections, and accountability.

Implications: In the economy, informality can sustain employment but reduces tax revenue and worker protections; in language and interaction, it shapes power relations and audience expectations; in governance, informal rules can complement or undermine formal institutions.

Measurement and variation: Estimates of the informal economy's size vary by country and method, but informal activity is widespread in many economies, especially where regulation is costly or enforcement is uneven. Informality also exists in developed contexts, though to different degrees.

By domain, informality is linked to related ideas such as casual dress, everyday pragmatics, informal settlements, and non-formal education. The concept remains debated: informality can enable participation and adaptability while challenging equity and formal accountability.