A Critical Evaluation of Romantic Depictions of the Informal Economy

Datos Bibliográficos

ID9256960
AutoresColin C Williams (0000-0002-3610-1933, University of Sheffield), John Round (0000-0003-0005-2348, University of Birmingham)
Año2008
Volumen66
Número3
Páginas297-323
Fecha de publicación2008-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaReview of Social Economy (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0034-6764 • E-ISSN: 1470-1162
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00346760801932700
OpenAlexW1976554653
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas9
Referencias citadas41

The conventional portrayal of the formal/informal economy dichotomy endows the formal economy with positive attributes and the informal economy with negative characteristics. Recently, this hierarchy has been inverted by scholars portraying the informal economy positively as a chosen alternative and path to progress. This paper evaluates critically this emergent representation. Reporting a study of the informal economy in the Ukraine conducted in 2005/2006, a diverse array of informal economic practices are identified that amongst some groups represent an involuntary means of livelihood but amongst others a chosen alternative and some of which seem beneficial and others deleterious to economic development and social cohesion. The outcome is a call to transcend simplistic binary hierarchical depictions of the formal economy as “bad”/informal economy as “good” (or the inverse) and towards a finer-grained and more nuanced understanding of the diverse forms of informal work and their varying consequences for economic development and social cohesion

Economic system · Economics · Economy · Psychoanalysis · Romance · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Psychology · Sharing Economy and Platforms · Taxation and Compliance Studies