AN EXERCISE IN WORLDMAKING 2009 - ISS

112 ISABELLE TURCOTTE
regarding the nature and definition of ‘informality,’ the concept has
largely evolved, reflecting a myriad of local and regional experiences with
production and working relationships beyond the realm of recognized, regulated
and registered employment. At the national level, the interpretation of
informality has largely driven the kinds of interventions states initiate to
encourage changes in the domestic labor market. These interpretations
heavily fall on the interests of the protagonists of political and economic
life with future policy formulation being anchored on these particular
interests. This essay draws a link between the process by which the formation
of institutions defines the macro policies that drive political, economic
and social relationships, by which a society may interpret the existing
reality of informality. As such, a translation of interests into policy
will allow us to view how interventions have affected the dimensions of
the informal economy in contemporary Colombia.
DEFINING AND INTERPRETING INFORMALITY
Since the early 1970s, the conceptualization of informality has been central
in academic and policymaking circles to analyze the linkages between
domestic relations of production, employment, growth and expressions
of marginality. With marked flows of urbanization, changes in industrial
production and growing differences in education and skill attainment,
the labor market segmented in such a way that more and more individuals
resorted to production outside of formal recognition, regularization
and protective covenants, differentiating ‘informal’ workers and occupations
from the masses of public and private ‘formal’ sector workers. The
prominence and expansion of informality in most cities brought scholars
to articulate conceptual definitions so as to draw links between these
workers and their inherent connection or disconnection from state institutions
that provide the parameters to affect policy formulation regarding
the labor market.
The discussion on the informal economy can be loosely divided into
three periods, the first focusing mostly on characterizing the workers,
their activities and the economic factors affecting the development of
urban economic linkages; the second drawing attention to the construction
of institutions, and the role of power and politics in affecting the
capacity and access of entrepreneurs to required capitals and inputs for
production; and the third concentrating on the access to capital or legal
recourses that change the nature of enterprise and labor relations. In or-