Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Persistence of Informal Economies

博士论文研究：非正规经济的持续存在

• 批准号: 1409660
• 负责人: George Steinmetz
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: Regents of the University of Michigan - Ann Arbor
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1409660&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Persistence; Informal

Theories of economic development have long predicted that employment outside of formal, regulated organizations would eventually become obsolete, but informal economies continue to provide a livelihood to around 60 percent of workers in poorer countries and 30 percent in richer ones. India is a particularly important case when studying informal economies because over 90 percent of its workforce is informal. This project analyzes informal waste collection and recycling in Delhi, India, which, despite challenges from legal and private actors, continues to persist and facilitate positive environmental outcomes in India?s capital city. The research asks: What are the relationships and institutions that allow the informal recycling workforce to thrive in spite of private opposition and formal regulation? The project is designed as an extended case study, which assembles original ethnographic data to revise and build sociological theory on the relationship of state and market institutions to informal urban economies. The primary data to be collected are extensive participation observation with informal recyclers and at least 125 interviews with informal recyclers and legal actors. Two hypothetical positions are examined: the first holds that there is a division between higher and lower levels of legal operation, which results in support for informal enterprise at the local level despite high level disavowal, and a second proposes that while social relations such as kinship and ethnicity prevail within singular informal enterprises, market relations are a primary source of regulation between these informal enterprises. This project takes steps to understand urban processes in the twenty-first century. From the global cities literature, we know that cities are becoming increasingly connected through markets. However, that research attends only to the world?s wealthiest cities and takes a high-level perspective, when what is needed are more detailed analyses of how global flows and local practices combine to produce urban change. This study draws on sociological tools to open up the "black box" of urban informality and theorize how it is produced from the ground up. A detailed look at negotiations between informal actors and those in market and legal institutions provides an opportunity to revise essential sociological theory, while the combined focus on structural barriers and potential for agency holds promise as a paradigm for future urban research. Understanding the formal ties of informal work allows researchers to contribute to the difficult question of how to create change where formal institutions are less strong. Additionally, there is a need to study informal practices that contribute to an urban sustainability agenda. This project addresses both of these issues in a context where approaches to waste management could be revised to produce more positive social and environmental outcomes.

长期以来，经济发展的理论一直预测，正式，受监管的组织以外的就业最终将过时，但非正式经济体继续为贫困国家的60％的工人和30％的富人提供生计。在研究非正式经济体时，印度是一个特别重要的案例，因为超过90％的劳动力是非正式的。该项目分析了印度德里的非正式废物收集和回收，尽管法律和私人参与者面临挑战，但仍继续持续并促进印度首都的积极环境成果。研究问：尽管有私人反对派和正式法规，但有哪些关系和机构允许非正式的回收劳动力蓬勃发展？该项目被设计为一个扩展的案例研究，该研究汇编了原始的人种学数据，以修改和建立有关国家和市场机构与非正式城市经济的关系的社会学理论。要收集的主要数据是对非正式回收商进行广泛的参与观察，并至少对非正式回收者和法律参与者进行了125次访谈。研究了两个假设的立场：第一个认为，尽管高水平的拒绝，但在较高和较低的法律运营之间存在分歧，这导致在地方一级的非正式企业，而第二个提出，尽管社会关系（例如亲属关系和种族）在奇异的非正式企业中占上风，但市场关系却是这些金色肠道肠之间的主要来源。该项目采取步骤了解二十一世纪的城市过程。从全球城市文献来看，我们知道城市通过市场越来越有联系。但是，这项研究仅参加了世界上最富有的城市，并具有高级的观点，而当需要更详细地分析了全球流动和当地实践如何结合以产生城市变化的详细分析。这项研究借鉴了社会学工具，以打开城市非正式性的“黑匣子”，并将其从头开始生产。详细介绍了非正式参与者与市场和法律机构中的谈判，这为修改基本社会学理论提供了机会，而对结构性障碍和代理商的潜力的综合关注则是对未来城市研究的范式的希望。了解非正式工作的正式联系使研究人员可以为如何在正式机构不那么强大的情况下创建变化做出贡献。此外，有必要研究有助于城市可持续性议程的非正式实践。该项目在可以修改废物管理方法以产生更积极的社会和环境成果的情况下解决了这两个问题。