Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Persistence of Informal Economies

长期以来，经济发展理论一直预测，正规、受监管的组织之外的就业最终会过时，但非正规经济继续为较贫穷国家约60%的工人和较富裕国家30%的工人提供生计。在研究非正规经济时，印度是一个特别重要的案例，因为其90%以上的劳动力是非正规的。本项目分析了印度德里的非正式废物收集和回收，尽管有来自法律的和私人行为者的挑战，但这些活动继续存在，并促进了印度的积极环境成果。的首都。该研究问：是什么样的关系和制度，使非正规的回收劳动力蓬勃发展，尽管私人的反对和正式的监管？该项目的目的是作为一个扩展的案例研究，收集原始的人种学数据，以修改和建立关于国家和市场机构与非正规城市经济关系的社会学理论。收集的主要数据是对非正规回收者的广泛参与观察以及对非正规回收者和法律的行为者的至少125次访谈。两个假设的立场进行审查：第一个认为，有较高和较低层次的法律的操作，这导致在支持非正规企业在地方一级，尽管高级别的否认，和第二个建议，而社会关系，如亲属关系和种族盛行在奇异的非正规企业，市场关系是这些非正规企业之间的监管的主要来源。该项目采取步骤，了解城市进程在21世纪。从全球城市文献中，我们知道城市通过市场变得越来越紧密。然而，这项研究只关注世界？当需要更详细地分析全球流动和地方实践如何联合收割机结合起来产生城市变化时，本研究利用社会学的工具，打开城市非正式性的“黑箱”，并从理论上解释它是如何产生的。详细研究非正式行为者和市场和法律的机构之间的谈判提供了一个机会，以修改基本的社会学理论，而结构性障碍和潜在的机构的组合重点持有承诺作为未来的城市研究的范式。了解非正式工作的正式联系，使研究人员能够帮助解决如何在正式机构不那么强大的地方创造变革的难题。此外，有必要研究有助于城市可持续性议程的非正式做法。本项目在可修订废物管理办法以产生更积极的社会和环境成果的背景下处理这两个问题。

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.