Living in the interstices of capitalism: Towards a reformulation of the ‘informal sector’ concept

Abstract

The phenomenon of ‘informal sector’ activity poses difficult theoretical and political problems. Previous approaches to the subject have tended to emphasize the specifically ‘economic’ content of such activity by focusing on the ‘informal’ enterprise as the unit of analysis. This paper delineates a broader and more fundamental conceptual framework in which ‘informal sector’ activity is articulated with the trajectory of capital accumulation and social reproduction as one of the mechanisms through which the working class ‘as a whole’ sustains both its physical existence and its social coherence. It is argued that one needs to understand the nature of the matrix of social relationships and cultural practices within which ‘informal’ economic activity is embedded in order to develop an adequate analysis of the processes of class formation amongst ‘informal operators’ and the urban proletariat.