Informal Economy Flashcards
(28 cards)
Hart 2007
Coined the term informal. Informality as a paradox that allows freedom and flexibility.
Potter et al 2012, Chant 2008, Kabeer 2008
Connection between poverty, vulnerability and the availability of decent work
Lewis 1954
Dualism: 2 distinct economies in third world countries.
Modern/industrial versus traditional/backward
Potter et al 2012
2 economies seen as separate unlinked with traditional sector acting as a barrier to development.
Chant 2008, Thomas 2008
Dualism fails to recognise that the economies are inextricably linked through backward and forward linkages.
Daniels 2004
Formal/ Informal continuum
Lloyd Evans 2008
Enterprise approach versus worker based approach
Integrated approach
Tokman 1991
3 divisions of legality: legal recognition, legality of tax and legality of labour regulations.
Maloney 2004
Urban informal economy should be viewed as a micro-enterprise voluntary small firm sector not a disadvantaged residual of a segmented labour market
Chant 2008
Informal employment has economic potential, not always a poverty trap.
Thomas 2002
Globalisation has increased informal employment in 3 ways:
- top down processes
- jobless growth
- bottom up informality
Chant 2008
Informality has increased because:
- recession and neoliberal economic restructuring relocates work
- plucky entrepreneurs use it for tax avoidance
- demonstration of the poor (DeSoto)
Chant 2008
Crisis and restructuring have made the interconnectedness of formal and informal more visible.
McIlwaine, Chant and Lloyd Evans 2002
Informal economy seen as a rear army of labour connected to formal sector through exploitation of vulnerable workers in global supply chains
Carr and Chen 2004
Trade liberalisation and globalisation have cause social exclusion through unemployment, precarious work and long term participation in the informal economy.
Kabeer 2008
Reconceptualisation of informal sector - working conditions and labour relations exclusive to informal sector are expanding into formal sector including a shift towards flexibility.
Cox and Wyatt 2002
Informal economy a globalised concept - economic restructuring in developing economy has encouraged growth in informal economy and low level work, example of migrant workers in London.
Scott 1994
Informal/ Formal axis of segmentation too blind to gender.
Further axis of segmentation reveal that women often are employed in highest risk lowest paid work regardless of formality.
Chen et al 2006
‘Iceberg model’
Gender sensitive model of the informal labour force which depicts least visible lowest waged at the bottom. Gender division in both earnings and status.
Chant and Pedwell 2008
While gender differentiation can be a result of structural disadvantage ie low education and low skill but women also often choose informal employment as a positive opportunity to balance reproductive and market roles - triple burden of paid, household, care work.
Heintz 2008
Gender division of labour places less value in women’s paid work, reinforces dependency of male breadwinners and decreasing women’s access and influence over distribution of resources.
Kabeer 2005
Women most vulnerable therefore have most to gain!
Chant and McIlwaine 2009
Feminisation of labour and women’s increases participation in the workforce only to be marginalised
Kabeer 2008
Comparative advantage in women’s disadvantage
