The Formalization of Informal/Precarious Labor in Contemporary Argentina (original) (raw)

5.164 Informal Employment and Precariousness: Where Social Inequality Begins, and Where it Leads. Society and Policies in Argentina, 2003-2014

In this chapter we propose to analyse the relationship between living and employment conditions in Argentina at the start of the second decade of the 21st century, emphasising two elements: the first refers to our theoretical and methodological approach; and in the second we explain why labour precariousness has been (and still is) the main problem to solve in Argentina: (i) Since we understand that workers “shape” and at the same time “are shaped” (specifically) by general conditions (socioeconomic, cultural, social) we will analyse how informality has become an important feature of labour relations in this country, connecting those general conditions with individuals´ experiences and points of view . And (ii) we will focus in particular on workers enduring the conditions of informal employment. Although according to the introduction we have adopted a broad definition of informality, we will stress the situation of workers involved in informal labour relationship; we mean workers classified as precarious. We defined them as waged workers not included within current legal conditions, implying their being deprived of social protection and of labour security in general.

Beyond the Crisis: Economic globalization and informal work in urban Argentina

Journal of Latin American Geography, 2007

During the economic crisis in Argentina that peaked in 2002, rates of informal work rose to levels higher than those at any other time during the previous 60 years. Drawing on interviews with informal workers conducted in 2002, I address the connection of this informal work not only to the crisis conditions in the country at the time, but also to broader shifts in the nature of work in Argentina. In particular, I argue that a lack of availability of formal work, an increase in probationary employment, and an increase in contractual arrangements were all crucial components of the dependence on informal work seen during the crisis of 2002. Making sense of the experience of contemporary informal work in Argentina thus requires an acknowledgement of history of globalization of the Argentine economy, which was brought about in large part through the implementation of neoliberal policies that began in the 1980s and continue today.

Transcending dichotomies: Informal work, young people and the state in Argentina

International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 2020

Since the beginning of modern labor markets, formal and informal activities have coexisted alongside each other. However, most of the traditional approaches to informality are not fully able to explain the multiple forms by which this phenomenon manifests itself today in certain contexts. Informality in Latin American societies, particularly in Argentina, is heuristically revelatory for illustrating the need for a more complex definition and less rigid theoretical classifications. The main purpose of this article is to contribute to an empirical analysis about informality by addressing two points. First, the article provides a better understanding of the heterogeneous nature of informality—“involuntary” or “voluntary” informal work, “half-formal/half-informal” work—in the field of youth employment. Second, in connection with debates about the sources of informality, the article explores the hypothesis of the existence of state-created informality. The article illustrates these point...

Rethinking Working-class Politics: Organising Informal Workers in Argentina

Global Labour Journal

Our article engages with discussions about the implications of precarious work and its impact on workers’ capacity to organise by analysing the case of Argentina’s Confederation of Popular Economy Workers (CTEP, Confederación de Trabajadores de la Economía Popular). The organisation was created in 2011 with the aim of representing a broad and heterogeneous group of workers in varying conditions of informality, precarious self-employment and workfare programmes. We trace the history of the organisation and analyse its development by focusing on the role of social assistance as a crucial expression of the changing relations between precarious workers and the state. Social assistance has provided some resources for addressing the reproduction needs of precarious workers and of the territories in which they live, and also the material means through which an organisation like CTEP has sought to consolidate its political work among precarious workers. Nonetheless, social assistance has al...

Enduring Informality: The case of “La Salada” Market and the informal State in Argentina.

This dissertation inquires about the durability of informality in Argentina in the last decade, characterised by strong economic recovery and the improvement of socioeconomic indicators. After the 1990s, when the application of Washington Consensus policies led to the erosion of national industry, the rise of unemployment, and the flexibilisation of working conditions, informality peaked and became almost a standard in Argentina. In this environment, a range of informal markets developed, but paradoxically, expanded further when the previous context was reversed. This text explores this situation by combining the study of informality theories, the situation in Argentina in the 2000s, and the specific case study of "La Salada", one of the largest conglomerates of informal markets in Latin America. Doing so, it will propose that enduring informality in Argentina responds to a more complex situation within the Argentine state that goes beyond market and legal deficiencies.

Labour Informality in Latin America: The Case of Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Peru

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2012

Analysis of labour informality is very relevant in Latin America. More than half of all workers in the region are employed in informal activities, mainly as ownaccount workers or wage earners in small enterprises. A similar percentage of people work in jobs not registered in the social security system. The aim of this paper is to analyse two important aspects related to informality from a comparative point of view. The first is the association of informality, labour precariousness and income segmentation. The second is the relationship between informality and poverty. In order to conduct this study, four countries were selected-Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Peru-whose informal sectors and informal employment are significantly different from each other. Data used in this paper come from household surveys with the most recent available information.

Labor, Emotions And Social Structuration In Argentina

This paper sums up – in a cross-sectional perspective – three research studies concerning different work-related experiences in Argentina, involving call centers, social program beneficiaries and urban waste collectors. We discuss a particular dimension of certain processes related to transformations in labor to understand the role of emotions in the current processes of configuration of social relations. The methodology employed is predominantly qualitative: this paper focuses the analysis on the information gathered through in-depth interviews, from which it offers excerpts of narratives by call-center workers, unemployed trainees at the job training centers and female waste collectors. From three different perspectives upon the complex labor relations in Argentina – as a possible stage in the current transformation of the labor world – we show how a) socially constructed fear organizes perceptions and structures “correct ways of feeling” to guarantee not only the inexistence of conflict, but enormous profit rates for call centers; b) the “embodiment” of workers’ faces is located at the core of a business’s presentation, as a human ability to be valued and regulated for social program beneficiaries; and c) the “sensibility of disposable people” displays the way a particular reality becomes unquestionable, favoring a state of occupational disposability, for urban waste collectors. We state that these changes in the labor world show particular ways of managing emotions, becoming an axis of the “political economy of morals” at the current stage of expansion of capitalist social relationships