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Article
Publication date: 11 July 2017

Barbara Harriss-White

The purpose of this paper is to contribute original evidence about the conditions for formal and informal contracts for commodities and labour in the waste economy of a South…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute original evidence about the conditions for formal and informal contracts for commodities and labour in the waste economy of a South Indian town.

Design/methodology/approach

Field research was exploratory, based on snowball sampling and urban traversing. The analysis follows capital and labour in the sub-circuits of capital generating waste in production, distribution, consumption, the production of labour and the reproduction of society.

Findings

Regardless of legal regulation, which is selectively enforced, formal contracts are limited to active inspection regimes; direct transactions with or within the state; and long-distance transactions. Formal labour contracts are least incomplete for state employment, and for relatively scarce skilled labour in the private sector.

Research limitations/implications

The research design does not permit quantified generalisations.

Practical implications

Waste management technology evaluations neglect the social costs of displacing a large informal labour force.

Social implications

While slowly dissolving occupational barriers of untouchability, the waste economy is a low-status labour absorber of last resort, exit from which is extremely difficult.

Originality/value

The first systematic exploration of formal and informal contracts in an Indian small-town waste economy.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 37 no. 7/8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 19 June 2019

Demet Ş. Dinler

By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst waste-pickers and recycling traders in the waste paper, plastic and scrap metal sectors, and engaging with literature from…

Abstract

By drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted amongst waste-pickers and recycling traders in the waste paper, plastic and scrap metal sectors, and engaging with literature from economic anthropology and history, as well as archival sources, this paper documents changing perceptions of just price, morality and fairness in the Turkish recycling market. The paper suggests that multiple markets imply multiple prices, which are contingent and contested. When dealing with price mechanisms largely outside their control, actors tend to associate a fair price with the going market price, rather than factors such as state regulation. Approaches to morality and assessments of fairness become more ambiguous when prices are mediated by actors’ own practices. These range from gift relations to paternalism, envy and deception.

Details

The Politics and Ethics of the Just Price
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78743-573-5

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Book part
Publication date: 29 August 2022

Aaditeshwar Seth

Abstract

Details

Technology and (Dis)Empowerment: A Call to Technologists
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80382-393-5

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 2008

Gudrun Vande Walle

The informal economy is more than the inverse of the formalised economy, but is a dynamic environment. It is less limited by legal rules, state control, bureaucracy or tax…

1226

Abstract

Purpose

The informal economy is more than the inverse of the formalised economy, but is a dynamic environment. It is less limited by legal rules, state control, bureaucracy or tax regulation. On the other hand the informal market is less visible than the regular economy. The purpose of this paper is to find out how informal markets are currently developing.

Design/methodology/approach

This contribution is based on a literature review of primarily European work from scholars active in different disciplinary fields, concentrating upon presentations made during the seminars given for the EU Framework 6 CRIMPREV programme. It is structured using a matrix of potentially interesting variables: disciplinary interaction and the need for a multidisciplinary discourse; the position of nation states as a fundamental variable for the existence of the informal economy; general global economic dynamics and their implications for the concept of the informal economy; the interplay of formal, informal and criminal markets; the functionalities of informal markets for the classic survival economy; the dangerousness of wrong perceptions of informal markets and finally the contribution of different methodologies to the knowledge of the informal economy.

Research limitations/implications

The matrix is incomplete and further input is welcome.

Originality/value

This paper could be a start for the comparison of analyses of informal markets in time and space, without the limitations of the classic categories such as organised crime and in limiting definitions.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 35 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

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Book part
Publication date: 13 November 2015

Barbara Wejnert

Considering the recent trends of the increasing globalization of the market economy and the diffusion of democracy, the modern world needs to pay closer attention to pro-women and…

Abstract

Considering the recent trends of the increasing globalization of the market economy and the diffusion of democracy, the modern world needs to pay closer attention to pro-women and pro-girls policies if gender discrimination is to be challenged. Such policies could mark an era of building greater gender equality across the world by strengthening domains of women’s well-being that have been shown to decline in the initial years of the democratization and globalization of countries.

Women, who have more complex societal roles than men and whose employment is more tenuous, are more vulnerable to the rapid restructuring in macro-political and economic systems and bear more of the costs of systemic changes. My world-scale analyses show that women and men benefit unequally from the growth of democracy and the global economy – men’s well-being improves with the growth of democracy and globalization but women’s well-being declines. According to my follow-up studies, the decline lasts for over a decade (2014). These findings suggest that prior results of research proposing that democracy and the global economy improve people’s well-being are most likely biased when gender and the level of development in countries are not accounted for. To protect women and girls and to avoid gender discrimination, globalizing and democratizing countries should prioritize gender mainstreaming in their policies.

Details

Enabling Gender Equality: Future Generations of the Global World
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-567-3

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Book part
Publication date: 27 December 2013

Nilika Mehrotra

The aim of this chapter is to explore the marginal dimensions of disability, gender and caste in the context of Indian economy in recent globalizing times.

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this chapter is to explore the marginal dimensions of disability, gender and caste in the context of Indian economy in recent globalizing times.

Approach

Using an intersectional approach it is argued that caste, gender and disability implicate and impact the opportunities available to persons as these account for the marginalities in a developing economy. The chapter is based on ethnographic and empirical data and it critically analyses the trends.

Findings

This study shows how social and cultural frames on one hand and the nature of diverse occupational pursuits on the other set the context within which a person with dalit 1 status, with impairments and also a woman is likely to suffer the most. Social contexts are diverse and situation of persons within different groups varies. The chapter also examines state and NGO initiatives in this regard and suggests the limitations and possibilities of dalits with disabilities having access to resources within neo-liberal economy.

Originality

The findings expand the scope of disability research having policy implications.

Details

Disability and Intersecting Statuses
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78350-157-1

Keywords

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