Table Of ContentThe Informal Economy Revisited
This landmark volume brings together leading scholars in the field to investigate
recent conceptual shifts, research findings and policy debates on the informal
economy as well as future challenges and directions for research and policy.
Well over half of the global workforce and the vast majority of the workforce in
developing countries work in the informal economy, and in countries around the
world new forms of informal employment are emerging. Yet the informal work-
force is not well understood, remains undervalued and is widely stigmatised.
Contributors to the volume bridge a range of disciplinary perspectives includ-
ing anthropology, development economics, law, political science, social policy,
sociology, statistics, urban planning and design. The Informal Economy Revis
ited also focuses on specific groups of informal workers, including home-based
workers, street vendors and waste pickers, to provide a grounded insight into
disciplinary debates. Ultimately, the book calls for a paradigm shift in how the
informal economy is perceived to reflect the realities of informal work in the
Global South, as well as the informal practices of the state and capital, not just
labour.
The Informal Economy Revisited is the culmination of 20 years of pioneering
work by WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organ-
izing), a global network of researchers, development practitioners and organisa-
tions of informal workers in 90 countries. Researchers, practitioners,
policy-makers and advocates will all find this book an invaluable guide to the
significance and complexities of the informal economy, and its role in today’s
globalised economy.
Martha Chen is a Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, USA,
and Co-Founder, Emeritus International Coordinator and Senior Advisor of
WIEGO.
Françoise Carré is Research Director, Center for Social Policy, University of
Massachusetts Boston, McCormack Graduate School, Boston, USA, and Dir-
ector, WIEGO Statistics Programme.
Routledge Explorations in Development Studies
This Development Studies series features innovative and original research at the
regional and global scale. It promotes interdisciplinary scholarly works drawing on
a wide spectrum of subject areas, in particular, politics, health, economics, rural
and urban studies, sociology, environment, anthropology, and conflict studies.
Topics of particular interest are globalization; emerging powers; children and
youth; cities; education; media and communication; technology development;
and climate change.
In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any orthodoxy, the
series draws broadly on the tool kit of the social sciences in general, emphasiz-
ing comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application
of qualitative and quantitative methods.
Security, Development and Violence in Afghanistan
Everyday Stories of Intervention
Althea-Maria Rivas
Economic Development in Ghana and Malaysia
A Comparative Analysis
Samuel K. Andoh, Bernice J. deGannes Scott and Grace Ofori-Abebrese
Rethinking Multilateralism in Foreign Aid
Beyond the Neoliberal Hegemony
Edited by Viktor Jakupec, Max Kell and Jonathan Makuwira
The Informal Economy Revisited
Examining the Past, Envisioning the Future
Edited by Martha Chen and Françoise Carré
Barriers to Effective Civil Society Organisations
Political, Social and Financial Shifts
Edited by Ibrahim Natil, Vanessa Malila and Youcef Sai
The Informal Economy
Revisited
Examining the Past, Envisioning the Future
Edited by Martha Chen and
Françoise Carré
First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2020 selection and editorial matter, WIEGO, Martha Chen and
Françoise Carré; individual chapters, the contributors
The right of WIEGO and Martha Chen and Françoise Carré to be
identified as the authors of the editorial matter, and of the authors for their
individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and
78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.
com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-N on
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Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-i n-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging- in-Publication Data
A catalog record has been requested for this book
ISBN: 978-0-367-19151-1 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-20072-4 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
List of illustrations x
Notes on contributors xi
Acknowledgements xiv
List of abbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
MARTHA CHEN AND FRANçOISE CARRé
PART I
The informal economy revisited 29
1 Informality: the bane of the labouring poor under globalised
capitalism 31
JAN BREMAN
2 India’s informal economy: past, present and future 38
BARBARA HARRISS-WHITE
PART II
Informal employment: advances in statistics and research 45
3 Advances in statistics on informal employment: an overview
highlighting WIEGO’s contributions 47
JOANN VANEK
4 Informal employment in developed countries: relevance and
statistical measurement 52
FRANçOISE CARRé
vi Contents
5 The measurement of informal employment in Mexico 60
RODRIGO NEGRETE
6 WIEGO research on informal employment: key methods,
variables and findings 67
MARTHA CHEN
PART III
Economics and the informal economy 77
7 Assessing taxation and informality: disaggregated
frameworks matter 79
RAVI KANBUR
8 Informality and the dynamics of the structure of
employment 84
JAMES HEINTz
9 Old and new forms of informal employment 88
UMA RANI
10 Tax and the informal economy: lessons from South Africa 92
IMRAAN VALODIA AND DAVID FRANCIS
11 (Re)conceptualising poverty and informal employment 98
MICHAEL ROGAN AND PAUL CICHELLO
PART IV
Labour law and the informal economy 103
12 Revising labour law for work 105
JUDY FUDGE
13 Domestic workers and informality: challenging invisibility,
regulating inclusion 110
ADELLE BLACKETT
14 Enforcement of labour standards in developing countries:
challenges and solutions 116
MICHAEL J. PIORE
Contents vii
PART V
Urban planning and design: including informal livelihoods 121
15 The informal economy in urban Africa: challenging
planning theory and praxis 123
CAROLINE SKINNER AND VANESSA WATSON
16 Urban design: imaginations beyond architecture 132
RAHUL MEHROTRA
17 Informality, housing and work: the view from Indian cities 136
GAUTAM BHAN
PART VI
Homeworkers: extending labour rights in global value
chains 141
18 Regulating corporations in global value chains to realise
labour rights for homeworkers 143
MARLESE VON BROEMBSEN
19 Extending labour standards to informal workers at the base
of global garment value chains: new institutions in the
labour market 151
MEENU TEWARI
PART VII
Street vendors: politics and possibilities for inclusion 159
20 Street vendors and planning paradigms 161
AMIN Y. KAMETE
21 Street vending and the state: challenging theory, changing
research 167
VERONICA CROSSA
22 Street vendors and regulations 173
SALLY ROEVER
viii Contents
PART VIII
Waste pickers: integration and rights in public waste
management 179
23 Waste pickers and their right to the city: dispossession and
displacement in nineteenth-century Paris and contemporary
Montevideo 181
LUCíA FERNANDEz
24 Managing urban waste as a common pool resource 189
JéRéMIE CAVé
25 The political work of waste picker integration 195
MELANIE SAMSON
PART IX
Social policy and informal workers 201
26 The place of informal workers in different approaches to
social protection 203
FRANCIE LUND
27 Social protection and informal workers: rethinking the
terms of inclusion 210
LAURA ALFERS
28 Social protection for women informal workers: perspectives
from Latin America 215
SILKE STAAB
29 Informal workers in a context of urbanisation and
migration: reflections from China for social policy in Asia 221
SARAH COOK
30 Realising employer liability for informal workers: lessons
from India 226
KAMALA SANKARAN
Contents ix
PART X
Informal workers and the state 231
31 Deciphering African informal economies 233
KATE MEAGHER
32 Informal workers and the state in India 239
RINA AGARWALA
33 Informal domestic workers, informal construction workers
and the state: what prospects for improving labour
standards? 246
CHRIS TILLY
34 Waste & Citizenship Forum: waste pickers and the state in
Brazil 251
SONIA DIAS
Conclusion 257
MARTHA CHEN, FRANçOISE CARRé AND SALLY ROEVER
Bibliography 269
Index 292
