ABSTRACT
The concept of the ‘informal sector’ emerged amid the vigorous questioning of postcolonial economic development orthodoxy in the early 1970s. Groundbreaking research on the process of economic development in Africa by the International Labour Offi ce (ILO) (1972) and Keith Hart (1973) revealed analytic and conceptual weaknesses in orthodox development theory, which ‘[did] not correspond with reality’ (ILO 1972: 503). Both the ILO and Hart developed the notion of the informal sector to address the defi ciencies they had identifi ed. Debate around the concept burgeoned, but consensus as to how the informal sector might be defi ned and measured was illusive. Ambiguity regarding the exact character, meaning and signifi cance of informality in the process of economic development and industrial isation persisted and many scholars challenged the concept for being too inclusive and lacking any analytical rigour. Nevertheless, the concept has prevailed and the literature has fl ourished with contributions from sociologists, anthropologists, geo graphers and urban development specialists, as well as economists (Peattie 1987).
