Caroline Skinner

Position: Senior Researcher
Institution: African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town
Expertise: Urban employment, urban informal economy, urban planning and design, policy analysis and critique, urban advocacy

Caroline Skinner is a Senior Researcher at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town and Urban Research Director for the global research, policy and advocacy network WIEGO - Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing.  For over two decades her work has interrogated the informal economy and processes of informality.  This is with a view to, not only generate new knowledge, but inform advocacy processes; livelihood-centred policy and planning responses and better equip current and future urban practitioners to engage with ‘informality’.   Caroline has published widely on the topic and in her capacity as WIEGO Publications Director she has overseen the editing, commissioning and publication of over 120 open source publications - arguably the most comprehensive collection of work on the global informal economy to date. Skinner has a long track record of policy work at a local, provincial, national and international level and provides ongoing technical support for membership-based organizations of informal workers both internationally and in South Africa.