GEOG 352 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Environmental Degradation, International Labour Organization, Arab Spring
Document Summary
Main themes: informal economy: the informal economy is the part of the economy that is neither taxed nor regulated by the government. Informal workers are mainly first generation migrants who migrate into the cities. There is no accountability in their jobs, with their wages fluctuating daily. There is a reliance of the formal sector on the informal sector and vice versa. Two views on informal workers are structuralists and legalists. Structuralists believe informality is the expression of the uneven nature of capitalist development. (alsayyad, p. 12) On the other hand legalists have a more neoliberal perspective. Legalists focus on efficiency and refers to many informals as entrepreneurs . De soto (legalist) attributed the rise of the informality phenomenon to excessive state regulations. p. 13 thus, informals served a beneficial purpose in the development of a competitive capitalist economy. Gentrification: the process of developing an area to conform to modern, middle class standards.
