Reading Development

Random readings on society, politics and change – Jorge Carrillo

Protecting the entrepreneurial poor: A human rights approach

[Article behind paywall] Half of the working poor in developing countries are informal entrepreneurs – they make a living by engaging in commercial activities in the shadow economy. A series … Continue reading

Wednesday, 8 January 2020 · Leave a comment

Informality – addressing the Achilles heel of social protection in Latin America

WIDER 2019 Annual lecture was delivered by Santiago Levy and discussed the challenges of social protection in economies with large informal sectors, such as in Latin America. Currently less than … Continue reading

Sunday, 5 January 2020 · Leave a comment

Street Vending and Competitive Advantage: Towards Building a Theoretical Framework

The study examines the strategies adopted by street vendors or hawkers in Ghana in a bid to gain competitive advantage. Drawing on six focus group meetings held with street vendors … Continue reading

Thursday, 2 January 2020 · Leave a comment

Modes of Informal Urban Development: A Global Phenomenon

The concept of informality has often been misunderstood. Its, especially, urban character is rarely appreciated. With respect to urban development, it was once thought to distinguish the Global South, a … Continue reading

Sunday, 29 December 2019 · Leave a comment

Explaining and tackling the informal economy: an evaluation of competing perspectives

This paper provides an evidence-based evaluation of the competing ways of explaining and tackling the informal economy. Conventionally, participants have been viewed as rational economic actors who engage in the … Continue reading

Saturday, 28 December 2019 · Leave a comment

Social Ecology and the Right to the City: Towards Ecological and Democratic Cities

Cities today are increasingly at the forefront of the environmental and social crisis—they are simultaneously a major cause and a potential solution. Across the world, a new wave of urban … Continue reading

Wednesday, 18 December 2019 · Leave a comment

Reappropriating Public Space in Nanchang, China: A Study of Informal Street Vendors

Since China’s shift to market socialism, many marginalized by this process work as informal street vendors where they reappropriate public space in order to survive―a practice at odds with urban … Continue reading

Tuesday, 10 December 2019 · Leave a comment

Gender and the future of work in Thailand

Women in Asia experience massive structural disadvantages, from early childhood education through their retirement from work. It is mainly women who are exploited as cheap labor in Asia’s export industries … Continue reading

Sunday, 17 November 2019 · Leave a comment

The Age of Perplexity – Rethinking the World We Knew

The technological revolution and globalization have opened up what this book refers to as “The Age of Perplexity”. Perplexity in the face of changes that affect not only our lives, … Continue reading

Tuesday, 5 November 2019 · Leave a comment