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-...

With the cultural turn/s in urban studies, participation in alternative retail channels (i.e. informal and/or second-hand modes of goods acquisition) has been reconceptualised as motivated more by the search for fun, sociality, distinction, discernment, the spectacular and so forth rather than...

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...

In the light of high unemployment in deprived neighbourhoods, this paper considers whether community exchange is being used as a coping strategy. Examining its current magnitude and character as well as the barriers to participation in a particular deprived neighbourhood, this paper finds that...

Drawing upon case study evidence from Southampton, the aim of this paper is to show that paid informal work is not merely an economically-motivated peripheral form of employment that should be eradicated due to its fraudulent and exploitative nature. Instead, paid informal work is revealed to be...

To evaluate the validity of distinguishing between opportunity and necessity entrepreneurship, this paper investigates the motives of entrepreneurs who conduct some or all of their transactions on an off-the-books basis. Reporting empirical evidence from England on the motives of such...

This paper evaluates critically the neo-liberal perspective which contends that informal employment results from high taxes, public sector corruption and too much state interference in the free market and that the consequent remedy is to reduce taxes, public sector corruption and the regulatory...

The aim of this paper is to evaluate critically the gender variations in informal sector entrepreneurship. Until now, a widely-held belief has been that entrepreneurs operating in the informal sector in developing nations are lowly paid, poorly educated, marginalized populations doing so out of...

PurposeFor many decades, European national governments sought to stamp out undeclared work using a repressive approach. In the changing economic context of declining employment participation rates, however, the European Commission has called for a new approach to transform undeclared work into...