This essay considers the political potential of informality as a force for challenging authoritarianism and creating more equal and democratic outcomes. Building on Bandauko's concept of ‘subaltern surveillance,’ this essay demonstrates how informal actors leverage their marginalized position and bottom-up efforts to confront state repression and claim the right to the city. Grassroots initiatives are inextricably linked to ‘autogestion’ – the radical self-management of socio-spatial production in pursuit of democracy and popular sovereignty. Because informality can constitute the praxis of autogestion, its global prevalence suggests an unrealized potential as a political project in research and practice. Drawing on emerging literature on political informality, I aim to re-energize scholarship within and beyond human and urban geography, reflecting the urgency of informality as a continuing force in global spatial transformation.
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