Layered embeddedness: Exploring informal transport across urban scales in Lima-Callao

Ponce-Romero C. · Cities (2026) · DOI: 10.1016/j.cities.2026.106967

Resumen

Based on mobile ethnographic fieldwork following informal transport routes and their drivers, this paper dissects the social embeddedness of informal transport in Lima-Callao (Perú). The paper builds upon recent critical approaches to the social constitution of informal transport in the Global South to explore how this process of embeddedness develops in a city where daily commutes still depend heavily on informal transport despite recent transport reforms. The social embeddedness of informal transport, I propose, implies interactions that change across the urban scales of the city, involving bidirectional relationships and blurry boundaries between drivers and users in the urban peripheries of the city. As such, the article argues for a multi-scalar analysis of the social embeddedness to enable a more comprehensive understanding of informal transport. This type of analysis would allow to consider social embeddedness comprehension as an important factor in transport transition reforms.

Instituciones: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú