Conceptions of the dual economy (original) (raw)
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Da Informalidade à Economia Popular: distinguindo realidades e conectando abordagens
Ciências Sociais Unisinos
Over the last decades, rather than decreasing, informality has grown and furthered debates and studies among academics, activists and policy-makers. Nevertheless, the heterogeneity of the phenomena commonly associated with the concept of informality and correlates, such as informal sector and popular economy, results in a lack of consensus within the current literature. This is partly due to some theoretical and conceptual choices which hinder the formulation of frameworks capable of distinguishing among the various aspects of informality. The first aim of this paper is to clarify some of these issues, such as the prevailing understanding of the various realities that intertwine under the mantle of informality only by contrasting them with the formal economy, the use of all-encompassing concepts of little discriminating value, and, still, the mainstream theories' lack of recognition of the plurality of logics underlying economic institutions and behaviors. Secondly, the paper puts forward a conceptual distinction between informal employment and informal economy, as well as a clearer understanding of the scope of concepts such as informal work and popular economy. In order to capture these nuances, a bottom-up perspective is adopted, allowing to apprehend the informal economy according to its specific features, such as its relational assets and the role fulfilled by the principle of domesticity. Finally, the article stresses the need to recognize the plurality of logics underlying the economy, in order to properly assess the meanings of the economic practices of the popular sectors and their role in development processes.
2020
Aquesta tesi combina dades històriques amb teoria de jocs per a intentar entendre millor la relació entre els partits polítics i l'opinió publica. En primer lloc, estudi les dinàmiques de les qüestions socials. Demostro que les qüestions socials (per exemple, aquelles relacionades amb els drets de les dones i les minories, o les qüestions racials) tendeixen a seguir patrons de comportament, tant en termes de partits com d'opinió pública. Després, basant-me en aquests patrons, proposo una nova forma de modelar el comportament dels partits i del que ciutadans. A través de tres articles teòrics, aprofundeixo en la interacció dinàmica entre partits polítics i opinió pública al voltant d'una qüestió política específica. Els meus resultats llancen llum sobre què incentiva els partits a donar suport polítiques oposades. També ajuden a entendre millor diversos fenòmens que s'han observat en la realitat, com ara el fet que els partits polítics semblen estar més polaritzats qu...
Social Policy & Administration, 2017
Fifty years ago, a Portuguese sociologist, Adérito Sedas Nunes (1964), used the image of a 'dual society under evolution' to refer to Portugal. Since then, the image of Portugal as a country simultaneously old and new, (post) modern and traditional was used by several social scientists in various fields of research (migration, urban studies, social policy, education, culture). In spite of the remarkable process of modernization the country has experienced during this period of time, inequalities and dualisms continue to be deeply embedded in the economic and social system and were even intensified by recent austerity measures in the context of massive unemployment and economic distress. In the article, I examine two specific domains where signs of dualism(s) persist, the labour market and the system of welfare, and investigate how the interconnectedness between the two is generating new forms of social and economic inequalities. Reforms in the labour market have been under constant reform within the last decades, representing, for a large and increasing number of individuals, more precarious working conditions, low paid jobs, unstable lives with intermittent careers. At the same time, governmental policies have contributed to diminish the level of social protection for labour market participants in precarious employment as well as for people without jobs. This article aims at providing a contribution to the literature on dualization focusing on the link between changing forms of integration in the labour market and transformations in the social protection system, examining its specific configuration in one of the countries belonging to the Southern European welfare regime.
Re-thinking the Nature of the Informal Economy: Some Lessons from Ukraine
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2007
AbstractThis article provides a critical evaluation of the competing discourses that variously represent the informal economy as a residue or leftover of some pre-capitalist era, a by-product of a new type of emergent formal economy, an alternative mode of work organization or a complement to the formal economy. Drawing upon evidence from a study of 600 households in Ukraine that unravels the heterogeneous forms of work in the informal economy, the finding is that although each and every representation is wholly valid in relation to specific types of informal work, no one articulation fully captures the diverse nature and multiple meanings of the informal economy. Here, in consequence, it is contended that only by using all of them will a finer-grained and more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multifarious character of the informal economy be achieved. To display how this can be achieved, a conceptual framework is then presented that couples together these contrasting representations in order to provide a more multi-layered and nuanced depiction of the informal economy, followed by a discussion of the implications for urban and regional development and policy of recognizing the multiple and diverse types of informal work.This article provides a critical evaluation of the competing discourses that variously represent the informal economy as a residue or leftover of some pre-capitalist era, a by-product of a new type of emergent formal economy, an alternative mode of work organization or a complement to the formal economy. Drawing upon evidence from a study of 600 households in Ukraine that unravels the heterogeneous forms of work in the informal economy, the finding is that although each and every representation is wholly valid in relation to specific types of informal work, no one articulation fully captures the diverse nature and multiple meanings of the informal economy. Here, in consequence, it is contended that only by using all of them will a finer-grained and more comprehensive understanding of the complex and multifarious character of the informal economy be achieved. To display how this can be achieved, a conceptual framework is then presented that couples together these contrasting representations in order to provide a more multi-layered and nuanced depiction of the informal economy, followed by a discussion of the implications for urban and regional development and policy of recognizing the multiple and diverse types of informal work.RésuméCet article donne une appréciation critique des différents discours selon lesquels l’économie informelle apparaît respectivement comme un résidu ou un vestige d’une ère précapitaliste, un sous-produit issu d’un nouveau genre d’économie officielle émergente, un mode alternatif d’organisation du travail ou un complément à l’économie officielle. A partir des résultats d’une étude effectuée sur 600 foyers ukrainiens, qui décortique les formes hétérogènes du travail au sein de l’économie informelle, il est déduit que, même si chacune des représentations est tout à fait exacte pour des types donnés de travail informel, aucune explication n’appréhende entièrement la nature diverse et les sens multiples de cette économie. En conséquence, ce n’est qu’en les utilisant toutes qu’on obtiendra une compréhension plus fine et plus exhaustive du caractère complexe et varié de l’économie informelle. Pour ce faire, il est présenté un cadre conceptuel qui associe ces représentations contradictoires afin d’aboutir à un tableau plus nuancé, composé de plusieurs niveaux. Suit une étude des implications pour la politique et l’aménagement urbains et régionaux si les divers et multiples types de travail informel étaient reconnus.Cet article donne une appréciation critique des différents discours selon lesquels l’économie informelle apparaît respectivement comme un résidu ou un vestige d’une ère précapitaliste, un sous-produit issu d’un nouveau genre d’économie officielle émergente, un mode alternatif d’organisation du travail ou un complément à l’économie officielle. A partir des résultats d’une étude effectuée sur 600 foyers ukrainiens, qui décortique les formes hétérogènes du travail au sein de l’économie informelle, il est déduit que, même si chacune des représentations est tout à fait exacte pour des types donnés de travail informel, aucune explication n’appréhende entièrement la nature diverse et les sens multiples de cette économie. En conséquence, ce n’est qu’en les utilisant toutes qu’on obtiendra une compréhension plus fine et plus exhaustive du caractère complexe et varié de l’économie informelle. Pour ce faire, il est présenté un cadre conceptuel qui associe ces représentations contradictoires afin d’aboutir à un tableau plus nuancé, composé de plusieurs niveaux. Suit une étude des implications pour la politique et l’aménagement urbains et régionaux si les divers et multiples types de travail informel étaient reconnus.
The main currents (schools) of thought about the informal economy
The Review of International Comparative Management
Starting from the various interpretations of the concept of "informality", which can be associated with both negative aspects (underground economy, tax evasion, undeclared work, lack of productivity, lack of social protection, unfair competition) and positive aspects (a source for the poor, who have no alternative), this paper aims to review the main conceptual debates over the term "informality", opinions that can be synthesized in four currents or schools of thought, respectively: The dualist school, Structuralist School,
Economic Sociology: On concepts, theory choice, and political implications
As a field of research, economic sociology has until quite recently received relatively limited attention in Sweden. Within the discipline of sociology it is possible to identify a number of schools of thought dealing with economic sociology; traditions based on the works of theorists such as Marx, Weber and Parsons. Thus, strong and important traditions do exist within the field. However, the discipline that has dominated economic studies politically and as regards policy-making is without a doubt neo-classical economics. The strengths of this school are relatively well developed and coherent theoretical apparatuses accompanied by seemingly sophisticated and highly formalized techniques. This situation may explain the interest in and acceptance of economic theory and method within other fields and disciplines of social research, such as political science and sociology. Although there exist different schools of thought within economics, the dominance of the neo-classical school has been such that it has tended to stifle a critical discussion of its basic epistemological and methodological presuppositions. Instead, neo-classical theorists have concentrated upon the development of sophisticated methods of measurement and prediction. As a consequence basic parts of neo-classical economics remain underdeveloped. A critical discussion on economics and its theoretical foundations has taken place primarily in philosophy and social anthropology where, e.g., the concept of rationality has been under close scrutiny. We will argue that the healthily critical attitude taken by philosophers and social anthropologists should be the lodestar for the practice and development of economic sociology. In this paper we will identify some basic problems which we believe must be considered by economic sociology. It is not primarily our task here to solve problems, merely point to their existence. To problematize rather than give but negative answers, and thus hopefully making the social scientist's task a bit more complicated and so more fruitful. What follows is, it should be noted, a slightly revised version of the original 1985 paper.
Historical Social Research, 2018
This introductory essay to the HSR Special Issue “Economists, Politics, and Society” argues for a strong field-theoretical programme inspired by Pierre Bourdieu to research economic life as an integral part of different social forms. Its main aim is threefold. First, we spell out the very distinct Durkheimian legacy in Bourdieu’s thinking and the way he applies it in researching economic phenomena. Without this background, much of what is actually part of how Bourdieu analysed economic aspects of social life would be overlooked or reduced to mere economic sociology. Second, we sketch the main theoretical concepts and heuristics used to analyse economic life from a field perspective. Third, the focus on practical methodological issues of field-analytical research into economic phenomena. We conclude with a short summary of the basic characteristics of this approach and discuss the main insights provided by the contributions to this special issue.
The Political Economy of Informal Economies
Annals of The American Academy of Political and Social Science, 1987
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The Mixed Economic Systems of Socialist and Postsocialist Hungary
" There are different norms of exchange in all societies—all have a mix of normative rules " John Davis, Forms and Norms: The Economy of Social Relations (1973:172). The main focus or interest in comparative economics in the last three decades has shifted from comparing socialism and capitalism and has now shifted to a focus on the transition from socialism to capitalism. This new orientation of comparative economics has recently shifted to a look at the economic effects of the various institutions of capitalism, ignoring the fact that multiple economic systems coexist and overlap as a set of different cultural rules or norms for economic activity. Equally disturbing is the trend in seeing economic activity as norms or modes of exchange and consumption, ignoring resource extraction, modes of production, transportation, distribution, and environmental impact or environmental management. Rarely do we see economist look beyond capitalism, socialism and feudalism to compare economic systems and thus we often fail to see multiple competing and coexisting economic systems in the capitalist and developing world let alone the post-socialist transition. It is interesting that the hidden economy remains hidden from economic studies, but remains central to economic anthropology because of the way in which ethnographic methods reveal the culture or institutional rules for human conduct rather than the rich statistical data provided by economists. The qualitative methods of ethnography should enrich the quantitative methods of mainstream economists interested in how economic systems function, but also to help reveal why they don't function, why they change, and how they are linked to wider questions of culture and social norms. In 1978, Stuart Henry wrote that the " hidden-economy " was governed by " rules, customs and traditions " that make it very difficult for economists to understand why people engage in hidden economic activities. Hidden economic activities have been thought of as " irrational " much like gambling, gift giving, potlach, and conspicuous consumption. Comparative economic anthropology reveals that even with our capitalist system, we have not one economy but a number of component economies and thus we have not one system, but multiple systems. While most of our studies focus on comparative systems of exchange, most societies have multiple systems of exchange, if we look at economic systems as more than exchange relationship we can see that there are multiple systems of production or modes of production, multiple rules for consumption and environmental management, in fact multiple economic systems hidden beneath the facade of a monolithic capitalism system relentlessly incorporating any alternative on a global scale. In the 1990s I went to Hungary because I wanted to understand the transition from socialism to capitalism and found that such a transition was a façade. In 2002, I wrote about how diarchies lead to double binds and double binds are social relations based on mutually exclusive imperatives causing people to feel trapped, caught, or stuck in impossible situations (Smith 2002). I showed that this theory worked to explain such social behaviors such as suicide, alcoholism, corruption, patron-client relations, and moonlighting, but never fully connected double binds to economy systems and instead focused primarily on the political systems that create diarchies. Here I wish to explore how multiple economic systems create double bind