Inclusive Futures for Informal Workers in Cities in the Global South II.
Panel P28b at conference DSA2022: Just sustainable futures in an urbanising and mobile world.
This panel will explore how informal workers might be included in urban development in cities in the Global South and how greater inclusion can be brought about to ensure more just and sustainable urban futures.
Long Abstract:
Long Abstract: As rapid urbanization in the absence of formal job creation will likely lead to the growth of informal economic activity in cities throughout the Global South, there is a clear need to imagine and work towards more inclusive futures for informal workers. This panel will explore what these futures might look like, focusing on examples of inclusion in particular urban contexts, the conditions and processes that (have) brought these about, and the possible insights that can be drawn from them for the promotion of inclusion elsewhere.
Participants are encouraged to address one or more of the following topics:
1. Particular political economy arrangements that facilitate or limit possibilities for inclusion, including political systems, institutions, decision-making processes, or patterns of ownership and accumulation.
2. The extent to which organization within the informal economy can facilitate inclusion, what can be learned from different forms organization has taken and different strategies that have been employed, and how organization in the context of informal work can be placed within the history of labour and/or social movements.
3. The successes and/or failures of policy efforts to promote inclusion in specific contexts, surrounding, for example, the interests they have served and the extent to which they have been truly inclusive for all workers in relation to class, gender, race/ethnicity/religion, and other divisions.
4. Possible strengths and shortcomings of the international policy architecture for promoting inclusion for informal workers, including ILO Recommendation 204, the New Urban Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
5. Emerging trends surrounding, and challenges to, the promotion of inclusion for informal workers, including de-democratization, changes in global production and consumption, rising inequality, the politics of migration, and efforts to address climate change and public health challenges.
6. The role that scholarship can play in bringing about inclusive futures.
Methodology: This panel will consist of a 40-minute discussion of key themes emerging from panelists’ presentations, which all participants will be able to view in advance. All participants will also be encouraged to reflect on how the arguments and materials presented by panelists relate to contexts they are familiar with, one or more of the six panel topics outlined above, and broader trends in the field of Development Studies, and are invited to prepare any questions and/or comments to contribute to what will hopefully be an engaging conversation.
This paper discusses what the results of a major household survey reveal about the class dynamics and forms of inequality that the exist in informal economies in the Global South and what insights this might offer into the political economy arrangements that could most effectively promote inclusion.
Paper long abstract:
Any effort to promote an inclusive future for informal workers in cities in the Global South must rest on a firm understanding of the specific class dynamics and forms of inequality that they experience. Without an appreciation the structural forms of marginalization that characterize the lives and livelihoods of informal workers, it remains difficult to envision how to facilitate more equitable integration into urban, national and global economies. This paper presents key findings about individuals who engage in informal work from a major household survey undertaken in 14 cities in seven countries in Asia and Africa by the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods, discussing both common characteristics and divergent trends surrounding class dynamics and forms of inequality that can be observed between cities and considering what this suggests about the particular political economy arrangements that are most conducive to inclusion.
Based on detailed survey data and in-depth interviews with informal workers across different sectors in four major cities of Kenya and Tanzania, this paper provides unique insight into the role of informal worker organizations in facilitating inclusion in formal social insurance schemes.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the extent to which informal worker organizations (IWOs) enable participation in formal social insurance schemes in four major cities of Kenya (Nairobi and Kisumu) and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam and Dodoma). Based on a combination of detailed survey data and in-depth interviews with informal workers and their organizations in the construction, micro-trade, and transport sectors, the study provides unique insight into what characterizes informal workers and the mechanisms through which social insurance access is enabled. The analysis shows that members of IWOs are significantly more likely to participate in formal health insurance compared with non-members, albeit with substantial variation across location, sector, and worker types. These divergences relate to sector-specific constellations and the different ways in which IWOs function. In many instances, IWOs play a dual role by providing both direct short-term social cushioning and facilitating enrolment in public social insurance schemes. Their part in ensuring universal and inclusive social protection must therefore not be underestimated, particularly in the context of COVID-19.
This paper explores perspectives related to a national e-commerce delivery system implemented in a developing country context during the pandemic to support formal and informal businesses, with further support for mobile livelihoods.
Paper long abstract:
Mobile delivery of products, particularly restaurant orders to homes and businesses has been an important part of the Caribbean landscape. With the emergence of the pandemic, the formal and informal service sector, and the related mobile livelihoods and transport services faced changes in modes of operation. The sectors had to navigate and respond to the changing environment, restrictions and health protocols including hours of operation (curfews), safety protocols for workers and customers. Further, informal businesses and grey economy workers faced limited interaction with customers. Through partnerships between the Government and private sector, a national e-commerce delivery system was implemented. This paper explores perspectives related to the system in a developing country context in the Caribbean during the pandemic, to support formal and informal businesses, with further support for mobile livelihoods. The responses and interactions are explored in relation to the new digital technologies for informal service providers and mobile livelihoods, navigating the digital app, formal banking and payment systems, and the designation of being an essential worker during the curfew hours. Through a thematic content analysis of available material on the national e-commerce delivery system, stakeholder perspectives and lessons learned are discussed, with implications for well-being and inclusion of stakeholders, and policy recommendations for mobile livelihoods and the grey economy.
This paper presents some provisional reflections and findings from a qualitative research project that explores the effects of slum upgrading programs on urban informality in two settlements in the City of Buenos Aires. We are interested in exploring how tenure regularization and housing commodification might be affecting the informal economic and social fabric of these communities.
Paper long abstract:
In 2016, the government of the City of Buenos Aires announced comprehensive upgrading programs in four informal settlements with a holistic approach and major investments efforts. These interventions would include new social housing, formal connections to public services, upgrading the public space, improving existing homes, and tenure regularization.
Urban informality is a political economy of place that connects spaces and economies, where deregulation creates new forms of accumulation, power and authority as a byproduct of State planning and regulation, complementing rather than undermining that very same power. It is a state of permanent negotiation and renegotiation, with its own winners and losers, and agents from multiple scales converging on its territory to secure, consolidate and distribute economic and political resources. The arrival (or return) of State power through upgrading programs can only upset this political economy of urban informality, with its upgrading agencies, street-level bureaucrats, transformations of the built environment, and regularization of tenure. Therefore, agents living in communities undergoing upgrading efforts are then forced to renegotiate their informal arrangements in housing, labor, enterprises, and reproductive practices.
This paper presents some provisional reflections and findings from a qualitative research project that explores the effects of slum upgrading and formalization programs on urban informality in the City of Buenos Aires. Our fieldwork focuses on two settlements (Villa 20 and Barrio Padre Mugica), particularly tending to how formalization, commodification and financialization might be affecting the economic and social fabric of these communities.
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Short Abstract:
This panel will explore how informal workers might be included in urban development in cities in the Global South and how greater inclusion can be brought about to ensure more just and sustainable urban futures.
Long Abstract:
Long Abstract: As rapid urbanization in the absence of formal job creation will likely lead to the growth of informal economic activity in cities throughout the Global South, there is a clear need to imagine and work towards more inclusive futures for informal workers. This panel will explore what these futures might look like, focusing on examples of inclusion in particular urban contexts, the conditions and processes that (have) brought these about, and the possible insights that can be drawn from them for the promotion of inclusion elsewhere.
Participants are encouraged to address one or more of the following topics:
1. Particular political economy arrangements that facilitate or limit possibilities for inclusion, including political systems, institutions, decision-making processes, or patterns of ownership and accumulation.
2. The extent to which organization within the informal economy can facilitate inclusion, what can be learned from different forms organization has taken and different strategies that have been employed, and how organization in the context of informal work can be placed within the history of labour and/or social movements.
3. The successes and/or failures of policy efforts to promote inclusion in specific contexts, surrounding, for example, the interests they have served and the extent to which they have been truly inclusive for all workers in relation to class, gender, race/ethnicity/religion, and other divisions.
4. Possible strengths and shortcomings of the international policy architecture for promoting inclusion for informal workers, including ILO Recommendation 204, the New Urban Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals.
5. Emerging trends surrounding, and challenges to, the promotion of inclusion for informal workers, including de-democratization, changes in global production and consumption, rising inequality, the politics of migration, and efforts to address climate change and public health challenges.
6. The role that scholarship can play in bringing about inclusive futures.
Methodology: This panel will consist of a 40-minute discussion of key themes emerging from panelists’ presentations, which all participants will be able to view in advance. All participants will also be encouraged to reflect on how the arguments and materials presented by panelists relate to contexts they are familiar with, one or more of the six panel topics outlined above, and broader trends in the field of Development Studies, and are invited to prepare any questions and/or comments to contribute to what will hopefully be an engaging conversation.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Thursday 7 July, 2022, -