The Construction of Space: Spatial Considerations for the Contemporary Debate on Property Rights and the Informal Economy
Property rights systems and their relationship to the informal spaces are a contested and highly relevant part of contemporary development discourse. This study explores the reproduction of the concept of the informal in urban space. The central problematic of this study then departs by asking in what ways does the debate on property rights and the informal economy emerge as a representation of space? Resolving these will be achieved by examining how property is incorporated as a means of transforming social relationships, and the conceptualization of the informal and formal divide These concepts will then be put in relation to Henri Lefebvre’s theory of the reproduction of social space. 
This study presents a critique of the way that space is theorized and the way interpretations of the contemporary context are reproduced in ideologically-motivated construction of the social world. This is accomplished through an analysis of the relationship between property rights and the informal/formal conceptualization. Ideas of developing property systems and social institutions will be examined with reference to both the literature on the informal and the underlying ideology of private property rights systems. The intention is to allow a more comprehensive vision of the relationships between people, governments, and material appropriation to be examined.