Informal urbanism and the dynamics of peri-urban Yangon: Lessons from Slum “555”

This study examines Slum “555,” a peri-urban informal settlement on the fringes of Yangon, Myanmar, to investigate how informality emerges, persists, and functions under conditions of institutional exclusion, regulatory neglect, and spatial marginalization. Drawing on historical review, spatial analysis, and fieldwork conducted in 2018–2020—including interviews, field observations, community mapping, and a small-scale household survey (n = 36)—the paper traces the settlement's formation as a gov