Securing Livelihoods

The informal and popular economy has often been analysed as a form of barefoot capitalism. The analysis in this book is completely different. Using mainly a Polanyian framework, which recognizes a plurality of principles of economic integration, it presents a new picture of the popular economy and of the role of solidarity within that economy. This different perspective gives a new impulse to conceive of public policy not only in terms of social protection organized by the State, but also in terms of efforts to coordinate formal and informal institutions and practices aimed at enhancing security of livelihoods. * Jean-Louis Laville, the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy *
Global economic crisis is adding to the numbers and vulnerabilities of the billion or more people in all parts of the world finding employment and survival in the informal sector. This important collection of 13 case studies from Latin America, Africa, and Asia brings out the human positives as well as the negatives of this process. The book broadens and deepens our understanding of how the informal sector contributes to income, security, and survival, providing some new sources of hope but also new warnings for th se who would simply view these trends with complacency. * Richard Jolly, University of Sussex *
The informal economy lies at the heart of the question of social security today. This is because the welfare state is being dismantled in the world's former leading economies and is being built by the BRICS. The issue of how to combine formal and informal institutions in more effective social protection programmes is urgent. This volume, bringing together an impressive range of new scholarship from several regions, breaks new ground in the on-going attempt to coordinate public provision with what people already do for themselves. * Keith Hart, University of Pretoria, South Africa *
This book provides an intelligent and well-structured critical contribution to the knowledge of the popular economy. Inspired by Karl Polanyis hypothesis of the substantive economy, it demonstrates the heuristic value of Polanyis work. The studies, which have a strong empirical basis, focus on the informality, vulnerabilities, and finances of various forms of economic organization and their interaction with their socio-economic environments. The book also advances proposals for public intervention to support local development of the popular economy. This work marks a before and after methodology to investigate a key sector of the economy of peripheral countries.