WHY FORMALITY TENDS TO FAIL?
Ola Damilola Dominic
4061271
Prof. Ivan Kucina
Formality as we know
it over the past recent years over various sectors has come under a lot of debate
as to what it entails and the conditions around it. What does Formality really
mean? Is Formality an inclusive term or a rather controlled term? Why do we
have Formality? Does its advantages outweigh its disadvantages or vice-versa?
Formality can be
defined as the rigid observance of rules or conventions or etiquettes, stiffness
of behaviour or style, something that is done simply to comply with
requirements of etiquette, regulations, or custom or finally something that is done as a matter of course
and without question; an inevitability. From the definition alone, a lot of questions
arise. So it’s safe to say some things are done with reason but should not be
questioned. Why can’t it be questioned?
But from the
beginning people have always been drawn to freedom or rather opposed to
formality for so many reasons; freedom to move, freedom of expression and
freedom to think because of the because of the human factor, limitless
opportunities and lack of boundary. The quest of a few to map out the
activities of man and create a form of control as done nothing more but placed
a divide between one another. Although it could have been created with the best
of intentions to streamline efforts and increase efficiency. This divide which
is present within Formality as in turn made it that we are but limited in our actions.
A political quote goes saying “Freedom of speech is guaranteed under Formality
but Freedom after speech isn’t”. So then are we really free?
Formality as a means
was devised to take or develop control over resources and then share or
redistribute them equally. This didn’t end up working out according to plan. Most
of the Formal methods being used presently are frameworks written down dozens
of years ago which don’t take into consideration that people, society and
culture do differ across regions and over time. This same framework can’t be
applied every time to get the same results it once gave. It has to be modified
and updated to conform to recent conditions.
Formality as a
system is meant to be arranged or organized such that the focus is on the
interests of people and not on furtherance of national goals. As even after
nations crumble the people still go on living. Because it is almost impossible
to provide the public goals for everyone and at every time when needed,
Formality is being called into question.
Of recent the world
has been turning to learn from the Informal or apply experiences gotten from
the Informal. We wouldn’t be learning from it if Formality was as perfect as it
is proclaimed to be. This is not to romanticize Informality or propose that we
should return to informality as a system because Informality also isn’t perfect
but together or hand in hand the informal and formal could work for the
furtherance of all.
1.
Urbanization: Most
cities from the start have been planned for a specific number and with an
expected population growth which would be constant and kept under check. But the
rate at which the world has urbanized over the past years has been at an unprecedented
rate. Cities population have more than doubled or in some cases tripled and grown
way past projections. Slums have transformed into Urban Sprawls and into
megacities. By 2030, our 7.3 Billion will have increased to 8.4 Billion and 9.7
Billion by 2050 and 11.2 Billion by 2100. Virtually all population growth would
take place between now and then in cities. But the problem would be our failure
to plan for this expected influx. Formality has made it such that our cities
are stiff and rigid and can’t exactly be modified to accept changes. The formal
systems have made our cities a bottleneck of bureaucracies. One advantage of
the Informal in this aspect is its flexibility and resilience. People keep
coming into them but never at a point was there a threat to their structure or
originality in terms of social and economic value. It could be said that
Informal systems have no identity but what are we to expect from a hurriedly
put together system which knows it has to operate against all odds which
definitely are not in its favour. Against all this odds, the informal still
seems to stay afloat and accommodate change as it comes always able to make or
squeeze out enough square meters for the next influx. We need to be able to
learn from this process and apply to our formal cities to enable us cope with
the expected new wave of urbanization. Already in some cities the urbanization
has almost made it impossible for formality to function. Unplanned urban sprawl,
environmental pollution, deterioration, deficiencies in modern basic
facilities, and general urban decay has almost grounded formality to a halt. Basic
services and amenities have to be sourced for informally. Urbanization has
helped in pointing out the defects in formality and it needs to be fixed as
soon as possible as the world prepares for another wave of Urbanization.
2.
Industrialization:
The greatest accomplishment of Formality seems to be industrialization. The
struggle for efficiency, streamlined production, division of labour and so on.
But this has brought on a segment or part of the citizens untold hardship. With
most of the world citizens now being exclusive consumers, resources are running
out faster than they can be regenerated. The Industrial Revolution changed
material production, wealth, labour patterns and population distribution.
Although many rural areas remained farming communities during this time, the
lives of people in cities changed drastically. The new industrial labour
opportunities caused a population shift from the countryside to the cities. The
new factory work led to a need for a strict system of factory discipline.
Population movement was caused by people living in small farming communities
who moved to cities. There was population increase and this was thought to be
due to a dramatic decline in the death rate. A drop in famines, warfare and
illnesses, and an increase in food sources, all mixed to cause a population
spike. Cities became centres of industrial growth. But the growth of cities led
to horrible living conditions. The wealthy fared far better than the industrial
workers because they could afford to live in the suburbs on the outskirts of
the city. However, for most of the factory workers, cities were dirty, crowded
places where epidemics frequently broke out. The division became even more
prominent.
Industrialization transferred a portions of a
workforce from agriculture (Rural), which spreads cultivators across the land,
to manufacturing which was established in cities. This process reduced
drastically the balance and relationship between Rural and Urban and left the
rural populace hanging on. The effects of Industrialization can briefly be summarised
as Friedrich Engels put it “The first great division of labour, the separation
of Rural and Urban, condemned the rural population to thousands of years of
mental torpidity, and the people of the urban each to subjection to his own
individual trade. It destroyed the basis of the intellectual development of the
former and the physical development of the latter. When the peasant appropriates
his land, and the townsman his trade, the land appropriates the peasant and the
trade the townsman to the very same extent. In the division of labour, man is
also divided. The way out would be the creation of a Rural-Urban in which all the
advantages of the most energetic and active town life, with all the beauty and
delight of the country, may be secured in perfect combination ; and the
certainty of being able to live this life will be the magnet which will produce
the effect for which we are all striving — the spontaneous movement of the
people from our crowded cities to the bosom of our kindly mother earth, at once
the source of life, of happiness, of wealth, and of power.
3.
Inflexibility:
From the definition of formality alone which is defined as the rigid observance
of rules or conventions. It leaves room for a lot of loops. People have and
would always react to rules and only go with it when it favours their
sustenance. When a system offers no economic or personal benefit, ways around
it would be found giving room to Informality. Formality is concerned with the
process and in some instances, there are more than two or three processes to
achieve a result but Formality allows for just one process to be mapped and
replicated by all without taking into context the various existing conditions.
Informality as a system is very flexible as the end result is what matters and
not the process. For example, in Formality to build a house requires set down
principles, guidelines, materials and a lot more before the process of building
can begin and is so for almost every situation under it whereas with
Informality the context is always first considered before any design is applied
with various means such that each work is different from the other. This
flexibility of the informal gives rise to creativity and allows for a discovery
of new means. Of recent the flexibility of the Informal has given rise to the
so called expandable house whereby houses can be built over a period of time in
stages and improved upon as against the formal process of it being fully
constructed before being inhabited. It’s known that the cost of construction
due to formality has been increased by as much as 45% in some cities and as
such most people are not able to finish construction at a go.
4.
Regulations and
Laws: Because many formal cities are still being governed by laws which do not necessarily
match the prevailing urban reality, people tend to avoid getting trapped in the
regulations and laws as they are only but rigid. In some cases the regulations
and laws do exist but the failure for it to be enforced leads to a breakdown. Also
with the multiplicity of these laws, the costs associated are always high which
includes the cost of compliance and enforcement. The multiplicity and rigidity
of laws and regulations compel people to pursue informal routes to conduct
transactions, to do business and to get access to basic services. Excessive
regulations such as strict zoning, organization of urban space in exclusive
residential, commercial or industrial areas also seem to always give rise to
sprawl and an horizontal low density expansion of urban spaces.
The myriad of paper works and legal processes which need
to be followed meticulously and authorized by various offices knowing it might as
well be rejected at the end of the day is a turn off already for most who think
of the formal process. Then comes the informal which asks for almost nothing
but allows for almost anything. To take for example the processes and
formalities required to get a loan from a bank which is more often than not
denied and the assurance of getting a loan from a friend or through informal
means which is often guaranteed. We then can call into question formality
itself.
5.
Resources:
Formality thrives on the use and efficiency of resources and with the migration
trend worldwide, human resources which are the most important tend to move about.
This is due to the strong presence or concentration of businesses and companies
and others in a certain geographic area. If this is instead rather spread over
an area then the movement can be curbed and by so doing human resources are
kept in place and development is furthered.
Furthermore, Formality has been able to find a way to use up the most
productive land, dammed the most energetically profitable rivers and tapped
into the easiest to reach water. Now resources left are minimum and there’s a
problem with trying to share the benefits equally. So the quest for resources
which Formality so thrives on would be a reason for formality to break at
tipping point.
6.
Housing: The
impact of rapid population growth on housing development in almost all
economies is usually the consequence of the push of the rural areas and the
pull of the town. As the rural areas tend to efficiency thereby spewing people
out of barely sustainable jobs left which is in most instances due to the
industrialization of Agriculture. This leads to an upsurge in the amount of
people who move into the urban formal cities. This growth which is known still tends
to be highly unplanned for. There’s absolutely no reason why people would want
to stay in an area without jobs or other economic opportunities but the
government tends to think so. The newly urban people move into the urban
centres and are almost unable to get a befitting accommodation for the price
value they can afford. Some are left at the mercy of housing policies and social
policies which is more often always an attempt to keep them silent but is never
enough. There is always an upsurge and conglomeration of people in city centres
with the resultant effects on housing growth arising from acute unemployment.
This growth and physical expansion of cities have been accompanied by unplanned
urban sprawl, environmental pollution, deterioration, deficiencies in modern
basic facilities, and general urban decay. As increased poverty and
urbanization exert more pressures on urban facilities, most cities tend to have
lost their original dignity, social cohesion and administrative efficiency.
The provision of affordable housing for this newly
urban citizens has always been a major problem such that the only way out for
them is to seek solace within the informal. The informal system being flexible,
expandable and able to readjust with little or no costs and less troubles is
almost always.
7.
Administrative
and Political Influence: This plays a huge role in determining the success or
failure of formality. The presence in the formal goes a long way but more than
the presence, the effectiveness is the main deciding factor. But this presence often
more than not but plays a negative role. The struggle for power or
administrative control is resource intensive and capital expensive. This
struggle is done using resources and at the end the resources are almost all
used up and the dividends of it cannot be equally divided or shared. This
causes a huge gap in the equality of people and only deepens it. More often the
results of the struggle for resources and powers ends with a shift power often
with a movement of resources and key sectors. With this movement, the old
location is left behind and almost left behind. The left over control and
formal system is almost impossible to sustain itself. This results in a
breakdown of infrastructures and services at some point or an overwhelming of
existing ones. The power control happens to be within just a few for example
the Politicians and Billionaires. Of recent, there was a report as to what the
effect of Billionaires is on any given city or economy and they have little or
no impact. The money awarded for contracts only ends up switching accounts
between a group of people and only manages to trickle down. So if formality
should pride itself on being able to create billionaires and they have little
or no effect on the system do we still term is as a success.
8.
Human Control:
Lastly, the main struggle for Formality has been Control. From
industrialization to migration to resources to the laws and all. The main goal
has been a way to control man. But we all know the last thing any human wants
to be is to be controlled. With formal in place, boundaries are put up. Freedom
is given but not fully. With the informal, people are free to live out their
fantasies and dreams and boundaries are blurred so that they almost don’t
exist. People can switch domains and back as they please. With the formal as
can be seen in urban spaces, there’s a sort of control on people being zoned
into exclusive areas and allowing almost for no social mix. In various new age
developments, success rate has been deemed low for this reason alone. People
complain they become alienated to one another. There’s almost no contact or mix
as everyone is indirectly controlled leading to the way he behaves. What is
needed is an inclusive development that lets go of the reins of control to help
with social mixes and exchanges.
Formality we can say
has reached a state of nirvana whereby it is no longer considered natural but
now just tedious and boring. It is important to realize that Formality and
Informality should be seen as a continuum and part of a socio-economic fabric
where actors with various degrees of formality, interact, compete and exchange
and not as a dichotomy of one over the other. One should not also be seen as a
necessary good or the other as a necessary bad but both should be seen as parts
of a whole. The main aim at the end is to make both benefit those who happen to
live in both. The choices we make now would have a huge effect on how much
sustainable we will be with the human race.
