ABSTRACT
As explained in chapter 2, the informal sector adopts the social, economic and spatial characteristics of its locality. In Trinidad, recent austere economic conditions have impacted upon a fragmented labour market to produce varying opportunities and obstacles for different informal workers. In recent political history, state tolerance of informal employment has fluctuated between the active encouragement of micro enterprise and the periodic police clearance of vendors from public highways. In Trinidad, the informal sector affords opportunities for selfemployment, and income earning activity, which would otherwise be unavailable in the present economic climate. From the colonial period to the present day, Trinidad’s informal sector has provided jobs for its growing urban and rural population. From street trading and taxi driving to home production, the informal sector is becoming an increasingly important provider of work, but one which is spatially complex and highly gendered. Informality attracts large numbers of participants from all social backgrounds, who utilise the sector for different purposes. On the one hand, there are the subsistence operators who engage in the sector as a survival strategy, and on the other, there are petty capitalists who take advantage of the alternative economic structure offered by the informal sector. Rather than exclusively providing opportunities for the lowerincome social groups, the informal sector also provides a haven for many educated, middle-income operators who engage in informal activity on a regular basis. Even in the upper echelons of the community, many business practices are more informal than formal due to the nature of Trinidadian society.
