The Informal Economy

Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries
Erscheinungsjahr 1989
ISBN: 978-0-8018-3736-4
Verlag: Johns Hopkins University Press

Buch, Englisch, 360 Seiten, Paperback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 547 g

A New York roofer requests payment in cash. A Bogota car mechanic sets up "shop" on a quiet side street. Four Mexican immigrants assemble semiconductors in a San Diego home. A Leningrad doctor sells needed medicine to a desperate patient. All are part of a growing worldwide phenomenon that is widely known but little understood. The informal or underground economy is thriving today, not only in the Third World countries where it was first reported and studied but also in Eastern Europe and the developed nations of the West.

The Informal Economy is the first book to bring together studies from all three of these settings and to integrate them into a coherent theoretical framework. Taking an international perspective, the authors dispel a number of misconceptions about the informal economy. They make clear, for instance, that it is not solely a province of the poor. Cutting across social strata, it reflects a political and economic realignment between employers and workers and a shift in the regulatory mission of the government. Throughout, the authors' theoretical observations serve not only to unify material from diverse sources but also to map out directions for further research.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Benton, Lauren

Portes, Alejandro

Castells, Manuel

Benton, Lauren A.

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I. Overview
Chapter 1. World Underneath: The Origins, Dynamics, and Effects of the Informal Economy
Part II. Urban Labor Markets
Chapter 2. Employment Structure, Life Cycle, and Life Chances: Formal and Informal Sectors in Guadalajara
Chapter 3. New York's Informal Economy
Chapter 4. Informal Sector versus Informalized Labor Relations in Uruguay
Chapter 5. The Articulation of Formal and Informal Sectors in the Economy of Bogotá, Colombia
Chapter 6. Miami's Two Informal Sectors
Part III. Black Money, Black Markets
Chapter 7. Cocaine, Informality, and the Urban Economy in La Paz, Bolivia
Chapter 8. Informal Personal Incomes and Outlays of the Soviet Urban Population
Part IV. Industrial Restructuring and the Informal Sector
Chapter 9. Subcontracting and Employment Dynamics in Mexico City
Chapter 10. The Informal Economy and the Development of Flexible Specialization in Emilia-Romagna
Chapter 11. Informalization in the Valencian Economy: A Model for Underdevelopment
Chapter 12. Industrial Subcontracting and the Informal Sector: The Politics of Restructuring in the Madrid Electronics Industry
Part V. The Informal Sector and the State
Chapter 13. Informalization at the Core: Hispanic Women, Homework, and the Advanced Capitalist State
Chapter 14. Industrial Development, Ethnic Cleavages, and Employment Patterns: Penang State, Malaysia
Chapter 15. The "British Experiment": Structural Adjustment or Accelerated Decline?
Conclusion
List of Contributors
Index

Über Autor(innen)

Benton, Lauren A.
Lauren A. Benton is a former member of the faculty in the department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Castells, Manuel
Manuel Castells is professo of planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of fifteen books, including The Economic Crisis and American Society.

Portes, Alejandro
Alejandro Portes is John Dewey Professor of Sociology and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins Unievrsity. His previous books include Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States; Labor, Class, and the International System; and Urban Latin America.

Alejandro Portes is John Dewey Professor of Sociology and International Relations at the Johns Hopkins Unievrsity. His previous books include Latin Journey: Cuban and Mexican Immigrants in the United States; Labor, Class, and the International System; and Urban Latin America. Manuel Castells is professo of planning at the University of California at Berkeley, and author of fifteen books, including The Economic Crisis and American Society. Lauren A. Benton is a former member of the faculty in the department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.