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The making and unmaking of the (in)formal sector
A CHAKRABARTI, A THAKUR,
Published in -
2010
Volume: 36
   
Issue: 3
Pages: 415 - 435
Abstract
Using class-focused Marxist theory we examine the received category of the informal sector in order to demonstrate two results. First, we explicate the process of 'making' the informal sector in terms of the formal sector. Derived from a centrist logic that shapes the mainstream development paradigm, this involves a process of its devaluation in terms of the norm of the formal sector. Moreover, attempts to introduce heterogeneity within an already homogeneously defined informal sector are shown to be failing. Second, we show how placing the concept of the informal sector within the non-centric class-focused economic terrain fundamentally displaces, indeed 'unmakes', the received definition of the informal sector. Our analytical frame of a non-centric class-focused economic terrain reveals, on one hand, how the 'making' of the informal sector serves as a political rationale for shaping societal transition in favor of modern capitalism, and on the other, the problematical nature of the rationality. © The Author(s), 2010.
About the journal
JournalCritical Sociology
Publisher-
ISSN0896-9205