Francis OnditiIsrael Nyaburi NyaderaMoses Madadi ObimboSamson Kinyanjui Muchina2024-08-162024-08-162021-01-12Onditi, F., Nyadera, I.N., Obimbo, M.M. et al. How urban ‘informality’ can inform response to COVID-19: a research agenda for the future. HPLS 43, 6 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40656-020-00362-7https://repository.ru.ac.ke/handle/123456789/88In the era of increasingly defined ontological insecurity and uncertainty driven by the ravages of COVID-19, urban informal settlement has emerged as a source of resilience. Indeed, the effects of a pandemic transcends its epidemiological characteristics to political economy and societal resilience. If resilience is the capacity of a system to adapt successfully to significant challenges that threaten the function or development of the human society, then ontological insecurity is about the lack of such capacity. Drawing on Keith Hartian’s understanding of ‘informality’ of spaces, this policy brief attempts to identify and frame a research agenda for the future. The agenda would assist future researchers and policymakers provide responses that appropriately recognize groups and actors that define the urban informal space.enInformal urban settlements, Research agenda, Formalization of the informal, Ontological insecurity, COVID-19Article