ABSTRACT
A dominant story told by mainstream political and economic elites about the nature and trajectory of our global economies argues that not only is capitalism – the formal economy – becoming more hegemonic, but that its continued expansion is inevitable. Responding directly to this narrative, the aim of the chapter is to problematise – and ultimately reject – such a capitalocentric reading of the economy. It does this by critically focusing on two core assumptions in this dominant meta-narrative: the modernisation thesis, which suggests that ‘developing’ countries’ economies are becoming increasingly formalised over time, and the marginalisation thesis, which argues that the work undertaken in the informal economy is marginal and disappearing: only engaged in as a last resort by desperate individuals. Drawing on evidence drawn from both the Household Work Practice Studies in the UK, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) surveys of informal employment across 41 ‘developing’ economies, it is shown that far from witnessing a shift from informal to formal economic spheres, informal economies are pervasive and growing. Such a finding carries with it many significant implications, and the chapter emphasises particularly on how we might frame and rethink the future possibilities of work and organisation focused on non-capitalist practices.
