A conceptual framework on informal work and informal worker. Key challenges informal income opportunities and urban employment in ghana by keith hart this article originated in the study of one northern ghanaian group, the frafras, as migrants to the urban areas of southern ghana. I have included an annotated bibliography on sources below. The impact of globalization on the informal sector in africa.
For trade to be truly inclusive and sustainable, it must embrace the informal economy rather than excluding it. In the early 1970s, economic anthropologist keith hart observed from his research. Thirty years on kenneth king it is almost exactly thirty years since the term informal sector emerged from keith harts fieldwork in accra, ghana, and was internationalized by the work of the world employment mission to kenya in 1972. It describes the economic activities of the lowincome section of the. The rapid growth of the informal economy in developing countries, particularly sub saharan africa ssa, is evidenced by the increasingly important contribution it has to a developing countrys gdp. Section 2 explores competing definitions of the informal economy. Hart used the term to refer to the low income activities of the urban poor who could not find wage employment. Introduction since its discovery in 1973 by keith hart during a research mission to accra, ghana, the informal economy has. The informal economy keith hart the term informal economy became current in the 1970s as a label for economic activities which take place outside the framework of official institutions. The informal economy is now directly 1 inked to the main objectives of development. Informal income opportunities and urban employment in.
Keith hart, the inventor of the term the informal sector, claims that the distinction between formal and informal income opportunities is based essentially on that between wageearning and selfemployment hart 1973, p. The term itself has been much criticized, but it has proven remarkably robust in french, english, portuguese, and spanish. The term was coined by keith hart in his 1971 study of informal income opportunities in urban ghana hart 1973. Keith hart 1973, based on a conference paper of 1971 argued that the masses who were surplus. To further complicate things, keith hart, the purported coiner of the term informality and one who did not think the sector was necessarily bad. It arose at first in response to the proliferation of selfemployment and casual labour in third world cities.
Using this data, figure 1 graphs the size of the informal economy as a percentage of gross national income gni, which ranges from under 30 percent in south africa, the continents largest economy, to almost. Key conceptual issues economy using the term informal sector which had been coined by economist keith hart s previous. In this talk, he, amongst others, discusses the value of the distinction 40 years after. An informal economy informal sector or grey economy is the part of any economy that is neither taxed nor monitored by any form of government although the informal sector makes up a significant portion of the economies in developing countries, it is sometimes stigmatized as troublesome and unmanageable. A handbook of economic anthropology, second edition. The journal of modern african studies, n, i 1973 pp. The term, informal economy was first used by keith hart informal income opportunities and urban employment in ghana in journal of modern african studies during the 1970s to describe the temporary economic strategies adopted by migrant workers in ghana. The informal economy refers to a series of activities that, by occurring outside the arena of the normal, regulated economy, escape official record keeping. Keith hart in 1971, which emerged as a dynamic and vibrant sector, representing a growing proportion of economic activity, particularly in the developing countries. Plural economy jeanlouis laville ecological economics sabine u o. Africa has become poorer in the last halfcentury, but, from being the most sparsely populated continent around 1900, africas seventh of the worlds population now equals its share of the total land mass.
In general, informal activities have always been well accepted in senegal, and the rest of africa as well. The term informal economy became current in the 1970s as a label for economic activities that take place outside the framework of bureaucratic public and private sector establishments. The human economy a citizens guide development studies. He has taught at numerous universities including yale university and the university of chicago, most significantly at cambridge where he. First, based on aggregate monetary indicators they argue that the informal economy represented 10 per cent of. They borrowed the term informal from keith hart, an anthropologist who had presented a paper at an ids conference that. The urban informal economy revisited by ray bromley and tamar diana wilson one of the most cited definitions of the informal economy is a process of.
How the informal economy took over the world the memory bank. Keith hart born 1943 in manchester, england is international director of the human economy programme at the university of pretoria and lives in paris with his family. The nceus also showed that these patterns had hardly budged since 19992000, the figures for that year being 86. The methodology for estimating this indicator is based on the study by schneider 2002. Table 1 shows that high rates of unemployment are quite common in the developing world.
Coffee, market economy and informality in late colonial. Informal income opportunities and urban employment in ghana. The informal economy or sector has become the preferred term for unregulated economic activities. Unorganized sector contributed significantly and expanded rapidly for several years in the indian economy. This document represents a joint effort by ised and the aspen institute. An informal economy informal sector or grey economy. The impact of xenophobiaafrophobia on the informal. The informal economy in independent papua new guinea, 19752010 8. If anything, then, there has been a slight increase in informality during this period of high growth in the indian. Critical overview of the urban informal economy in ghana. Apr 10, 2012 intimations of keith harts informal economy in the work of henry mayhew, p t bauer and richard salisbury 46 pages posted.
Intimations of keith hart s informal economy in the work of henry mayhew, p t bauer and richard salisbury 46 pages posted. An unemployment rate of 4% to 6% is commonly seen as a frictional rate and a smaller policy concern. Famous for coining the distinction between the formal and the informal economy in the 1970s, hart is a critical scholar who engages headon with some of the worlds central political economic. People who work in the informal sector do not declare their income and pay no taxes on them. Intimations of keith harts informal economy in the. The term includes illegal activities, such as drug pushing and. The informal sector, also known as the underground economy, black economy, shadow economy, or gray economy, is part of a countrys economy that is not recognized as normal income sources. It should also be noted that many african researchers, notably at the institute of. It would not be hard, in postcolonial africa for example, to conceive of this dialectic as a war waged. Conroy abstract set in goroka in the highlands of papua new guinea png where coffee became the staple export crop after the second world war, this paper explores how a variant of keith hart s informal economy emerged among indigenous gorokans. Moral politics citizenship paulo henrique martins corporate social responsibility anne salmon welfare adalbert evers. The concept of the informal economy was coined in the development context by keith hart following studies of urban labour markets in ghana in 1973 gerxhani, 2004. Bureaucratic form and the informal economy oxford scholarship.
Introduction since its discovery in 1973 by keith hart during a research mission to accra, ghana, the informal economy. The informal economy can then be taken to be an economic variant of the general theory of formal organizations. The informal economy in development the history of an idea, with a casestudy of papua new guinea. He has taught at numerous universities including yale university and the university of chicago, most significantly at cambridge where he was. The term informal sector was first coined by keith hart in his study of the economic activities of the urban economy of accra, ghana, in 1973. He has taught at numerous universities, most significantly at cambridge where he was director of the african studies centre. His main research has been on economic anthropology, africa and the african diaspora. It is almost exactly thirty years since the term informal sector emerged from keith hart s fieldwork in accra, ghana, and was internationalized by the work of the world employment mission to kenya in 1972. Keith hart studied the urban labour market phenomenon in ghana and his work gave birth to the term. When john keith hart first coined the term1 in the early 1970s, he did not distinguish between the illicit and licit aspects of the informal trade he observed all around him on the streets of accra. Keith hart 1971, 1973, a social anthropologist, was the first one to bring the term. It is nominalism of the most haphazard sort to claim that the urban poor have an informal economy but their rich masters do not.
It then evaluates how the informal economy might be tackled in a way that helps people who are poor to escape their poverty. Explorations were done on different types of informal economy. Informal income opportunities and urban employment in ghana by keith hart this article originated in the study of one northern ghanaian group, the frafras, as migrants to the urban areas of southern ghana. Policy recommendation to address the informal economy 10 6. The human economy a citizens guide edited by keith hart, jeanlouis laville and antonio david cattani polity press. This section will deal with keith hart s introduction of the concept of the urban informal. The first appearance of this term was in a lecture given by keith hart at the institute for development studies in sussex, in 1971, later published as hart, keith, informal income opportunities and urban employment in ghana, journal of modern african studies, 11, 1, 1973, pp. Fundamental reasons for later explained outlook scenarios are highlighted and discussed in a local context. From this point of view, they are all the time, well integrated into society. Doc africas urban revolution and the informal economy.
Keith hart october 17, 2012 september 5, 20 2 comments on how the informal economy took over the world the informalization of the world economy, keynote lecture for the 24th conference of the societa italiana di economia pubblica. Informal income opportunities and urban employment in ghana volume 11 issue 1 keith hart skip to main content accessibility help we use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. The role of the informal sector in the development of. Formal bureaucracy and the emergent forms of the informal economy. Both keith hart and the kenya mission were largely positive about the informal sector. It was subsequently used by the world bank in urbanisation and poverty studies around the socalled third world, or developing world or developing countries. Coffee, market economy and informality in late colonial goroka, papua new guinea john d.
This means therefore that the economic and social importance of the informal sector does no longer need evidencing. In 2003, unhabitat in challenge of slums outlined measurable characteristics for defining slums. Section 2 explores competing definitions of the informal economy, highlighting our focus on micro and small enterprises that are large enough to pay taxes but small enough to warrant unique policy and administrative arrangements. On the other hand, we will look at the economic and social structure of ghana. Push and pull factors of the informal economy are discussed. Abstract i explore here the dialectic of formal and informal economy in the context of developmentdiscourse over the last four decades. Employment sector 20022 working paper on the informal economy supporting workers in the informal economy. Informal cross border trade in the east african community. It describes the economic activities of the lowincome section of the labour force in accra, the urban subproletariat into which the unskilled. In his initial analysis of the informal sector, keith hart put forward a cautionary note that is as valid today as it was in 1973 socialists may argue that foreign capitalist dominance of these economies determines the scope for informal and formal development, and condemns the majority of the urban population to deprivation and exploitation. Grace cleans windows of buildings under construction in dar es salaam. In addition to hart 1971, 1973 it will discuss three writers who may be considered his intellectual forerunners. Keith hart on the informal economy, the great transormation. Through an exploratory methodological approach, this article aims to analyze, from the.
S to support their claim about the persistence of a small scale and informal sector in developed countries. Hart 1973 distinguishes between formal and informal economies. If by now that sounds outdated, it is only because of the work of keith hart. The informal economy does not appear to be doing its job as a social security net for the poor in developing economies. Pdf informal income opportunities and urban employment in.
Arequiredstate regulatory and institutionalapproach egypt as a case study taha kassem assistant professor, international political economy, arab academy for science, technology and maritime transport. In fact, of course, informal and formal work are inextricably intertwined in the contemporary economy. Each, to a greater or less degree, anticipated the idea of informal economic activity and described it in a. Famous for coining the distinction between the formal and the informal economy in the 1970s, hart is a critical scholar who engages headon with some of the worlds central politicaleconomic challenges. Concepts and policies for linking the informal and. Intimations of keith harts informal economy in the work of henry. Informal economy, tax evasion and corruption, pavia, 2425 september 2012. Famous for coining the distinction between the formal and the informal economy in the 1970s, hart is a critical scholar who engages headon with some of the worlds central political economic challenges. This edited volume in berghahns human economy series, which keith hart directs from the university of pretoria, is part of a larger trend in economic anthropology that uses history to critique capitalism as opposed to an earlier trend that celebrated cultural pluralism in an era of neoliberal globalization. The term informal economy became current in the 1970s as a label for economic activities which take place outside. Keith hart anthropologist wikipedia republished wiki 2. Over time, various definitions have come into place. And, since i have opened up this site to public access, i have moved direct links to articles to a passwordprotected page a brief introduction to the issue.
Intimations of keith harts informal economy in the work. While there are many features of the informal economy discussed in academic literature and technical reports. The term informal was first used in a report by the international labour office 1972 and in an article by keith hart 1973, an anthropologist who had worked in ghana a few years previously and had been successful in the local market trade as an active observer hart, 2002. The informal economy elizabeth kopel in papua new guinea.
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