“There is a gap between the needs of those working informally and the expertise of those charged with urban policy and planning. We need a fundamentally different approach – bottom up, incremental, flexible, economically conversant and acutely aware of, and informed by, the specific context and power dynamics.”
Urban informal economy, urban planning and design, policy analysis and critique, urban advocacy, programme/project management
Caroline Skinner directs WIEGO’s Urban Policies Programme overseeing a senior team that provides intensive city-level support to worker organizations, conducts research and policy analysis, and engages with the state to secure gains for workers. A key focus is ensuring this work feeds into the work of the global networks of workers, global policy processes, and urban practice and theory – as a route to long-term change.
Since joining WIEGO in 2009, Caroline has been involved in all three of WIEGO’s multi-city studies monitoring the impact of crises on workers in the informal economy across the Global South: the 2008/9 Global Economic Crisis, the 10-city Informal Economy Monitoring Study, the 12-city COVID-19 Crisis Study, and the current study on the impacts of climate change on home-based workers and street traders in Delhi and Bangkok and waste pickers in Brazil, with a view to strengthening resilience.
Caroline monitors trends in urban policy and planning with respect to the informal economy in general, and street trading in particular. Driven by a commitment to inclusive practice, she has an abiding interest in urban design and architectural innovations – including documenting the Warwick Junction Project in inner-city Durban and supporting the work of Asiye eTafuleni and Mahila Housing Trust.
Caroline also serves as a Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town and contributes to the university’s projects. She was involved in Consuming Urban Poverty and Hungry Cities, interrogating the role of the informal economy in food security. She co-convened the informal-sector group within the Employment, Income Distribution and Inclusive Growth project, which resulted in the edited volume The South African Informal Sector: Creating Jobs, Reducing Poverty and a project focused on migrants’ contribution to the economy. She has published widely on informal-economy topics and, as WIEGO’s Publications Editor, overseen the publication of more than 200 open-source publications, arguably the most comprehensive collection of work on the global informal economy.
Caroline has a long track record of policy and advocacy work at global, national, provincial and local levels. She has written policy papers for the United Cities and Local Government, the United Nations Human Settlements and Development Programmes, and advised the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. In South Africa, she has advised the South African Presidency and developed informal-economy strategies for the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces. At municipal level, she has worked with the South African Local Government Association and provided technical expertise to a range of municipalities. She supports the African Association of Planning Schools and sits on the board of Cities Alliance.
Prior to joining WIEGO, Caroline was a Research Fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, in the School of Development Studies.
Select Publications
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Book Chapter
Rogan, M. and Skinner, C. 2024. "South Africa's Informal Economy and COVID-19: Differentiated Impacts and an Uneven Recovery" In: Chen, M.A., Rogan, M., and Sen, K. (Eds.), COVID-19 and the Informal Economy: Impact, Recovery and the Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Book Chapter
Skinner, C. 2024. "'Global Circuits of Knowing' & 'The Art of the Possible.'" In: Oldfield, S., Selmeczi, A., and Barnett, C. (Eds.), Knowing the City: Urban Scholarship from Apartheid to Democracy. Durban: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press.
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Resource Document
Reed, S. and Skinner, C. 2023. "Street Vending and Market Trading During the COVID-19 Crisis: Pathways of Impact and Recovery in Nine Cities." WIEGO Resource Document No. 38.
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Working Paper
Alfers, L., Skinner, C., et al. 2022. "COVID-19 and Informal Work in 11 Cities: Recovery Pathways Amidst Continued Crisis." WIEGO Working Paper No. 43. Manchester, UK: WIEGO.
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Book Chapter
Rogan, M. and Skinner, C. 2021. "The Informal Economy." In: Oqubay, A., Tregenna, F., and Valodia, I. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the South African Economy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Policy Brief
Skinner, C, Barrett, J. Alfers L., and Rogan. R. 2021. Informal Work in South Africa and COVID-19: Gendered Impacts and Priority Interventions, A Joint UN Women / WIEGO Policy Brief.
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Journal Article
kinner, C. and Watson, V. 2020. "Planning and Informal Food Traders under COVID-19: The South African Case." Town Planning Review, Vol. 91, No. 1, pp. 71–89.
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Book Chapter
Skinner, C. and Watson, V. 2020. "The Informal Economy in Urban Africa: Challenging Planning Theory and Praxis." In: Chen, M.A. and Carré, F. (Eds.), The Informal Economy Revisited: Examining the Past, Envisioning the Future. London: Routledge.
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Research Report
Skinner, C., Harvey, J. and Reed, S. 2018. Supporting Informal Workers in Public Space: A Toolkit for Local Authorities. Prepared for the Cities Alliance Joint Work Programme for Equitable Economic Growth in Cities.
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Book Chapter
Skinner, C. 2018. "Informal Retail in Africa: Understanding Contributions and Exclusionary Policy Practice." In: Battersby, J. and Watson, V. (Eds.), Urban Food Systems Governance and Poverty in African Cities. London: Routledge.
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Journal Article
Skinner, C. and Haysom, G. 2016. The Informal Economy’s Role in Feeding Cities – A Missing Link in Policy Debates? Working Paper 6, PLAAS/CoEFS working paper series. Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape, Bellville.
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Book Chapter
Skinner, C. 2017. "The Role of Law and Litigation in Street Trader Livelihoods – The Case of Durban, South Africa." In: Brown, A. (Ed.), Rebel Streets, Informal Economies and the Law. London: Routledge.
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Journal Article
Chen, M., Roever, S. and Skinner, C. 2016. "Urban Livelihoods: Reframing Theory and Policy." Environment and Urbanization, 28(2), 331–342.
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Journal Article
Roever, S. and Skinner, C. 2016. "Street Vendors and Cities." Environment and Urbanization, 28(2), 359-374.
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Book
Crush, J., Chikanda, A. and Skinner, C. (Eds.). 2015. Mean Streets: Migration, Xenophobia and Informality in South Africa. Cape Town: Southern African Migration Programme, African Centre for Cities, and International Development Research Centre.
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Op-Eds
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Video
ENCA TV News. 2021. COVID-19 in SA | Impact on Informal Workers. 15 March.
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Video
Caroline Skinner on Informal Trade: UN Secretary General’s Local 2030 Spotlight Series.
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Article
Skinner, C. and Rogan, M. 2020. Support for Women Informal Workers is Urgent as Pandemic Unfolds in South Africa, The Conversation. 8 August.
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Blog Post
Balbuena, P. and Skinner, C. 2020. For World’s Street Vendors, Life May Never be the Same after COVID-19, WIEGO Blog. 7 June.
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Article
Skinner, C. and Rogan, M. 2019. South Africa’s Informal Sector Creates Jobs, but should not be Romanticised, The Conversation. 12 September.
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