To explain participation in the self-service economy, competing theorisations have variously depicted participants as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of economic necessity or choice. To evaluate motives for self-servicing in the home improvement...

The aim of this article is to evaluate the prevalence and distribution in the European Union of a little discussed illegitimate employment practice whereby employers pay their formal employees both an official declared salary and an undeclared ‘envelope' wage so as to evade the full tax and...

To evaluate critically whether under a market system, monetary exchange is always and everywhere based on profit-seeking behaviour, this article examines cash-in-hand work, a form of activity conventionally conceptualised as low paid employment heavily imbued with profit motivations on the part...

A widely held belief is that as economies become more “advanced,” there is a natural and inevitable shift of economic activity from the informal to the formal sphere (herein referred to as the “formalization of work” thesis). Hence, the existence of supposedly “traditional” informal...

The aim of this paper is to challenge the characterization of paid informal work as a form of employment based on exploitative relations that should be eradicated. Using empirical evidence gathered through structured interviews with 511 households in deprived and affluent neighborhoods in...

Paid informal work has been conventionally viewed as a barrier to social inclusion. Conceived as exploitative low-paid employment conducted by marginalised populations for unscrupulous employers, such work has been considered to prevent social inclusion, in that it denies employees access to the...

The aim of this paper is to show that the extensive and growing sphere of paid informal work is not the same everywhere. Instead, we identify distinct socio-spatial differences in its character and the reasons why people engage in such work. Drawing upon interviews with 511 households in higher-...

This paper evaluates critically the representation of the underground economy in the advanced economies as comprised of marginalised populations working ‘off the books' as employees for wholly or partially underground businesses under exploitative conditions. It reveals that this ‘thin'...

This paper evaluates self-help and mutual aid as tools for tackling social exclusion and promoting social cohesion in deprived urban neighbourhoods. Highlighting the rationales for using self-help and mutual aid to combat social exclusion and cohesion and then drawing upon case-study evidence...