The Global Informality Project is a collaborative scholarly initiative exploring the unwritten rules, hidden practices and informal ways people solve problems around the world. It publishes an online encyclopaedia that documents these practices, often described as “ways of getting things done,” and brings together contributions from researchers across five continents. Visitors can browse entries by location, theme or cluster, learn about informality, and explore what the project has found so far.

The project also offers downloadable published volumes, including The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, Volume 3: A Hitchhiker’s Guide to Informal Problem-Solving in Human Life. Its wider activities include events, an open call on informal art, a newsletter, an informality map developed with the World Economic Forum’s Strategic Intelligence team, and opportunities to contribute new entries or support its work. The project has received support through European Union research programmes and welcomes public contributions.

Much of the encyclopaedia is available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4. 0 license, enabling sharing and adaptation with appropriate credit