ABSTRACT
The second chapter discusses of the evolution of the conceptual frameworks that have been used by academics and international institutions (such as the International Labour Organisation, the World Bank, the IMF and global charities) as they try to understand the enduring phenomenon of the urban working poor in developing countries. It looks at the theoretical roots of different academic approaches to the ‘informal sector’. It shows how neo-Keynesian and neo-Marxist perspectives of the 1970s, which emphasised the poverty of the informal sector, gave way to a global neoliberal consensus, in which the same artisans were presented as entrepreneurs who were being held back by the regulatory state. It argues that this neoliberal theory is no more than a culturally embedded ideology that does not stand up to the scrutiny of empirical evidence. Historical-structural analysis provides the theoretical framework for the critique of neoliberalism that is inherent in the empirical evidence and the experience of the artisans.
