Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Persistence of Informal Economies

经济发展理论早就预测，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%的工人提供生计，为较富裕国家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例子，因为印度90%以上的劳动力是非非正规的。本项目分析了印度德里的非正式废物收集和回收，尽管面临来自法律和私人行为者的挑战，但仍在继续坚持并促进了印度的积极环境成果。美国的首都。该研究提出了这样一个问题：是什么样的关系和制度使得非正规回收劳动力不顾私人反对和正式监管而蓬勃发展？该项目被设计为一个扩展的案例研究，它汇集了原始的民族志数据，以修订和建立关于国家和市场制度与非正式城市经济关系的社会学理论。收集的主要数据是对非正式回收者的广泛参与观察，以及对非正式回收者和法律行为者的至少125次访谈。本文研究了两种假设立场：第一种观点认为，在法律运作的较高和较低层次之间存在分歧，这导致尽管高层否定非正式企业，但地方一级仍支持非正式企业；第二种观点认为，虽然亲属关系和种族等社会关系在单一的非正式企业中占主导地位，但市场关系是这些非正式企业之间监管的主要来源。这个项目采取步骤来理解21世纪的城市进程。从全球城市的文献中，我们知道城市通过市场越来越紧密地联系在一起。然而，这项研究只关注世界吗？当我们需要的是更详细地分析全球流动和当地实践如何结合起来产生城市变化时，他采取了高层次的视角。本研究利用社会学工具，打开了城市非正式性的“黑盒子”，并从理论上阐述了它是如何产生的。对非正式行为者与市场和法律机构中的行为者之间的谈判的详细研究为修订基本的社会学理论提供了机会，而对结构障碍和代理潜力的综合关注有望成为未来城市研究的范式。了解非正式工作的正式关系，使研究人员能够对如何在正式机构不那么强大的地方创造变革这一难题作出贡献。此外，有必要研究有助于城市可持续发展议程的非正式做法。本项目在可以修订废物管理方法以产生更积极的社会和环境成果的背景下解决这两个问题。

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.