The Working Unemployed: Perspectives on the Informal Economy and Unemployment
This paper will begin defining the activities that are taken to comprise the informal economy, and go on to propose a simple typoiogy, based on an expansion of the previous work of Ferman, Gexshuny, Plahl and myself.
Abstract
In the past three years, interest in aspects of the infonnal, black and hidden economies has grown beyond the wildest ezpectadoos of those who first coined the terms in the early 1970s. There have been masters and doctoral theses, papers, popular articles, books and bibliographies, local and international meetings, SSRC sponsored workshops, and discussions on television, in The Times, and in the House of Commons. Perhaps most indicative of the significance of this interest is that, in spite of the current crisis in research funding, agencies are positively encouraging grant proposals to study what has become a highly relevant area. In this paper I at ten^ to review the literature that has emeiged with particular reference to the relaticmshq) it posits between the informal economy and unemployment I will begin t^ defining the activities that are taken to comprise the informal economy, and go on to propose a simple typoiogy, based on an expansion of the previous work of Ferman, Gexshuny, Plahl and myself.^ In the context of a discussion about the differing academic orientations to the infonnal economy, I will show how two opposing per^)ectives are emerging. In one, the informal economy is presented as an alternative form of work which has the potential to absorb unemployment It is seen as a vehicle for entrepreneurial innovation, as the human side of cqxtalist enterprise, and even as the vanguard for an alternative society. The other, nx>re critical perspective sees this as a rather naive vision, a vision which masks a rdationship of dq>endence on the p market economy, in which the informal economy is, at bes^ no more than a temporary buffer or survival mechanism for die poor. I shall argue that attention to only one of these per^Kcdves has a number of inherent dangers.