A common assumption is that commodification - the process by which goods and services are increasingly produced by capitalist firms for a profit under conditions of market exchange - is colonizing, albeit slowly and unevenly, ever more areas of daily life. Yet little evidence has been supplied...

Purpose – To evaluate critically the view of undeclared work as market-like activity conducted for monetary gain, and participation as a rational economic decision, and the resultant public policy response that seeks to deter engagement in such work by ensuring that the expected cost of being...

It is popularly assumed that the main barrier that prevents household services from being outsourced to the small business sector is household disposable income. This paper evaluates critically whether this is the case. Reporting survey results from 418 households in the UK city of Sheffield,...

A widespread assumption has been that undeclared work is rife in the European construction industry. Despite this, there have been no European-wide surveys of the prevalence and character of undeclared work in this sector of the economy. To fill this gap, the findings are reported of a 2007...

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...

The shadow economy (also known as the black or underground economy) covers a vast array of trade, goods and services that are not part of the official economy of a country. This original and comprehensive Handbook presents the latest research on the size and development of the shadow economy,...

The starting point of this paper is recognition that the depiction of a formal/informal labour dualism, which views formal and informal labour as separate and hostile realms, is inappropriate for capturing the range of labour practices in societies. This is because labour practices cannot be...

This article explores the uneven geographies of informal economic activities. Drawing upon 511 interviews conducted in higher- and lower-income neighbourhoods of one affluent and one deprived city in Britain, we explore whether the capabilities of households to perform necessary work and...

Most studies of paid informal exchange evaluate its varying magnitude across space and social groups. Little attention, however, has been paid to the variable nature of paid informal exchange. Instead, the unchallenged assumption is that such exchanges are universally conducted under work...

In recent years, much cross-national research on women's work has focused on the impact of the state in creating the conditions to enable women to combine paid work and motherhood. However, when dealing with women's domestic responsibilities, this research has concentrated heavily on caring...