The Informal Economy Revisited: Examining the Past, Envisioning the Future

This landmark volume brings together leading scholars to investigate the informal economy, including its conceptual shifts, research findings, and policy debates. It highlights the undervalued and stigmatized nature of the informal workforce, which comprises over half of the global workforce and is particularly prevalent in developing countries. The book explores disciplinary perspectives and focuses on specific groups of informal workers, advocating for a paradigm shift in how the informal economy is perceived. It is the result of 20 years of pioneering work by WIEGO, a global network of researchers and organizations.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 326 pages
Publication date: 29 April 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

This landmark volume brings together leading scholars in the field to investigate recent conceptual shifts, research findings and policy debates on the informal economy as well as future challenges and directions for research and policy. Well over half of the global workforce and the vast majority of the workforce in developing countries work in the informal economy, and in countries around the world new forms of informal employment are emerging. Yet the informal workforce is not well understood, remains undervalued and is widely stigmatised.

Contributors to the volume bridge a range of disciplinary perspectives including anthropology, development economics, law, political science, social policy, sociology, statistics, urban planning and design. The Informal Economy Revisited also focuses on specific groups of informal workers, including home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers, to provide a grounded insight into disciplinary debates. Ultimately, the book calls for a paradigm shift in how the informal economy is perceived to reflect the realities of informal work in the Global South, as well as the informal practices of the state and capital, not just labour.

The Informal Economy Revisited is the culmination of 20 years of pioneering work by WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), a global network of researchers, development practitioners and organisations of informal workers in 90 countries. Researchers, practitioners, policy-makers and advocates will all find this book an invaluable guide to the significance and complexities of the informal economy, and its role in today’s globalised economy.

The Open Access version of this book, available at

https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429200724, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license

Weight: 603g
Dimension: 234 x 156 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780367513894