SYLLABUS

230-319: STUDYING THE INFORMAL ECONOMY IN THE TWENTYFIRST CENTURY

Instructor: Deniz Yükseker

Meeting hours: Mondays 2:00-5:00 pm

e-mail: deniz@jhu.edu

This course aims to study the informal economy – defined as licit economic activities that are not formally regulated by states -- in a new light. It will start with a survey of the debates on the informal economy in the last quarter of the twentieth century in industrialized, developing and (formerly) socialist countries. The objective of the survey will be to develop a new conceptualization of the informal economy, since world economic changes such as “globalization” and the collapse of socialism have made earlier definitions redundant, although the phenomenon of informality is more prevalent today than ever before. We will pay special attention to the overrepresentation of women in the informal economy. The course will be based on readings of book chapters and articles. Lectures will be complemented by classroom presentation and discussion of students’ own research on the topic. The course grade will be based on active participation, a written report on one of the readings, a presentation based on a reading, another presentation based on the student’s own research, and a final research paper.

Written report: 30 percent

Final Paper: 50 percent

Presentations: 20 percent

BOOKS AND ARTICLES:

All reading materials are on reserve. Book excerpts are marked (E), journal articles are marked (A), books on reserve are marked (B), and books on sale at the Book Center are marked (*).

(B) Beneria, L. and Roldan, M. 1987. The Crossroads of Class and Gender: Homework, Subcontracting, and Household Dynamics in Mexico City. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

(E) Blim, M. 1992. “Small-Scale Industrialization in a Rapidly Changing World Market” in F. Rothstein and M. Blim, eds. Anthropology and the Global Factory. Studies of the New Industrialization in the Late Twentieth Century. New York: Bergin and Garvey.

(B) Bromley, R. and Gerry, C., eds. 1979. Casual Work and Poverty in Third World Cities. New York: John Wiley and Sons.

*(B) Castells, M. 1998. The Information Age: Economy, Society and Culture. Vol.3. End of Millenium. Malden, MA: Blackwell.

(A) Czako, A. and E. Sik. 1999. “Characteristics and Origins of the Comecon Open-air Market in Hungary,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol.23, no.4

*(B) Duneier, M. 1999. Sidewalk. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

(E) Feldman, S. 1992. “Crises, Poverty and Gender Inequality: Current Themes and Issues” in L. Beneria and S. Feldman, eds. Unequal Burden: Economic Crises, Persistent Poverty, and Women’s Work. Boulder: Westview Press.

(B) Freeman, C. 2000. High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy. Women, Work, and Pink-Collar Identities in the Caribbean. Durham: Duke University Press.

(A) Friedmann, J. 1989. "The Dialectic of Reason," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research. vol.13, no.2, June.

(E) Wilson, S. and M. Zambrano. 1994. “Cocaine, commodity chains, and drug politics” in G. Gereffi, and M. Korzeniewicz. 1994. Commodity Chains and Global Capitalism.

(A) Granovetter, M. 1985. "Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness," American Journal of Sociology, vol.91, no.3, 481-510.

(E) Grossman, G. 1982. "The ‘Second Economy’ of the USSR," in V. Tanzi, ed. 1982. The Underground Economy in the United States and Abroad. Lexington: Lexington Books.

(A) Hillman, F. 1999. “A Look at the ‘Hidden Side’: Turkish Women in Berlin’s Ethnic Labor Market,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol.23, no.2, June, pp. 267-282.

(E) Humphrey, C. 1999. “Russian Protection Rackets and the Appropriation of Law and Order,” in J. Heyman, ed. States and Illegal Practices. Oxford: Berg.

(A) Khotkina, Z. 2001. “Female Unemployment and Informal Employment in Russia,” Problems of Economic Transition, vol.43, no.9, January pp.20-33.

(A) Kosals, L. 1999. “The Shadow Economy as a Specific Feature of Russian Capitalism,” Problems of Economic Transition, vol.41, no.12, April, pp.6-33.

(B) Light, I. And S. Gold. 2000. Ethnic Economies. San Diego: Academic Press.

(B) MacGaffey, J. 1991. The Real Economy of Zaire. The Contribution of Smuggling and Other Unofficial Activities to National Wealth. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press

*(B) MacGaffey, J. 2000. Congo-Paris. Transnational Traders on the Margins of the Law. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

(A) Mingione, E. 1999. “Introduction: Immigrants and the Informal Economy in European Cities,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol.23, no.2, June, pp. 209-212.

(A) Peattie, L. 1987. "An Idea in Good Currency and How it Grew: The Informal Sector," World Development, vol.15, no.7, 851-860.

(E) Polanyi, K. 1957. "The Economy as Instituted Process" in K. Polanyi, C. M. Arensberg and H. W. Pearson, eds. Trade and Market in the Early Empires. Economies in History and Theory. Glencoe: The Free Press.

(A) Portes, A. 1983. "The Informal Sector: Definition, Controversy, and Relation to National Development," Review, vol.7, Summer, 151-174.

*(B) Portes, A., Castells, M. and L. Benton, eds. 1989. The Informal Economy. Studies in Advanced and Less Developed Countries. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

(A) Portes, A. and Schauffler, R. 1993. "Competing Perspectives on the Latin American Informal Sector," Population and Development Review, vol.19, no.1, 33-60.

(A) Portes, A. and Sensenbrenner, J. 1993. "Embeddedness and Immigration: Notes on the Social Determinants of Economic Action," American Journal of Sociology, vol.98, no.6, 1320-1350.

(E) Portes, A. 1994. "The Informal Economy and its Paradoxes," in N. Smelser and R. Swedberg, eds. The Handbook of Economic Sociology. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

*(B) Rakowski, C,.ed. 1994. Contrapunto. The Informal Sector Debate in Latin America. Albany: SUNY Press.

(E) Redclift, N. 1985. "The Contested Domain: Gender, Accumulation and the Labor Process," in N. Redclift and E. Mingione, eds. Beyond Employment. Household, Gender and Subsistence. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.

(A) Sik, E. 1992. "From Second Economy to Informal Economy," Journal of Public Policy, vol.12, no.2, pp.153-175.

(A) Sik, E. and Wallace, C. 1999. “The Development of Open-air Markets in East-Central Europe,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, vol.23, no.4, December, pp.697-713.

(A) Stark, D. 1989. "Bending the Bars of the Iron Cage: Bureaucratization and Informalization in Capitalism and Socialism," Sociological Forum, vol.4, no.4, 637-664.

(A) Stoller, P. 1996. “Spaces, Places and Fields. The Politics of West African Trading in New York City’s Informal Economy,” American Anthropologist, vol.98, no.4, pp.776-788.

*(B) Tabak, F. and M. Crichlow. 2000. Informalization: Process and Structure. Baltimore: JHU Press.

COURSE OUTLINE:

WEEK ONE: The informal sector: Definition

Castells and Portes (1989) in Portes et al.

WEEK TWO: Informality in developing countries

Portes (1983); Moser 1994 in Rakowski; Bromley (1994) in Rakowski; Bromley and Gery (1979), Introduction; Birkbeck (1979) in Bromley and Gerry; Peattie (1987).

WEEK THREE: What is the economy?

Portes 1994; Polanyi 1957; Granovetter 1985; Light and Gold 2000, Chapter 1; Portes and Sensenbrenner (1993).

WEEK FOUR: A historical perspective on the informal economy

Tabak (2000) in Tabak and Crichlow; chapter 2 in Tabak and Crichlow; some reading on globalization, TBA

WEEK FIVE: The second economy in socialist countries

Grossman (1989) in Portes et al.; Grossman (1982); Stark (1989)

WEEK SIX: The informal economy since the 1980s: In the core:

Stepick (1989); Benton (1989); Blim 1992: chapter 5; Mingione (1999); Hillman (1999); Sassen (2000) in Tabak and Crichlow.

WEEK SEVEN: Focus on the urban informal economy in the U.S.

Sidewalk, various chapters; Stoller (1996); Sassen-Koob (1989) in Portes et al.

WEEK EIGHT: The informal economy since the 1980s: In the periphery:

Rakowski (1994): Chapter 2; Quijano (2000) in Tabak and Crichlow; Roldan (1989) in Portes et al.; Friedmann (1989).

WEEK NINE: The persistence of the informal sector after the collapse of socialism.

Sik (1992); Kosals (1999); Kuznetsova (1998); Sik and Wallace (1999); Czako and Sik (1999)

WEEK TEN: Women’s Work and the Informal Economy

Beneria and Roldan (1987): Chapter 1 and 4; Feldman (1992), Chapter 1; Redclift (1985); Khotkina (2001)

WEEK ELEVEN: Cross-border informal economic activities

MacGaffey (1991): Chapters 1, 5 and 6; Freeman (2000), Chapter 4; MacGaffey (2000), Introduction.

WEEK TWELVE: The other side of the coin: The transnationalization of the criminal economy and how to distinguish it from the informal sector

Castells 1998: Chapter 4; Humphrey (1999) in Heyman; Wilson and Zambrano (1994) in Gereffi and Korzeniewicz.

WEEK THIRTEEN: Presentations of students’ research

WEEK FOURTEEN: Review and evaluation