IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v16y2011i1p43-53.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mapping the Social Organization of Labour in Moscow: Beyond the Formal/informal Labour Dualism

Author

Listed:
  • Colin C. Williams
  • Sara Nadin
  • Peter Rodgers
  • John Round
  • Jan Windebank

Abstract

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 neatly separated into discrete formal and informal realms, the differences within the formal and informal spheres are as great as the differences between the two realms, and formal and informal labour are not always embedded in different economic relations, values and motives. Here, an alternative more nuanced conceptual lens is proposed that resolves these problems and in so doing captures the multifarious labour practices in societies, namely the total social organization of labour (TSOL) perspective. This depicts labour practices as existing along a spectrum from more formal-oriented to more informal-oriented practices and cross-cuts this with a further spectrum from non-monetized, through in-kind and reciprocal labour, to monetized labour. Applying this conceptual lens, the results of a survey of the anatomy of labour practices in an affluent, mixed and deprived district of Moscow, comprising 313 face-to-face interviews, are then analysed. This reveals that socio-spatial variations in the organisation of labour are not solely about the degree of formalization of working life. Instead, this study unravels that populations range from relatively affluent ‘work busy’ populations undertaking, and voluntarily selecting from, a multiplicity of labour practices, to relatively disadvantaged ‘work deprived’ populations engaged in a narrower range of practices and more commonly out of necessity and in the absence of alternatives. The outcome is call for both the wider application and refinement of this TSOL approach when mapping the social organisation of labour and evaluations of whether the findings from Moscow are more widely valid in other societal contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Colin C. Williams & Sara Nadin & Peter Rodgers & John Round & Jan Windebank, 2011. "Mapping the Social Organization of Labour in Moscow: Beyond the Formal/informal Labour Dualism," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 16(1), pages 43-53, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:16:y:2011:i:1:p:43-53
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2244
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.2244
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.2244?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Byung–Yeon Kim, 2002. "The participation of Russian households in the informal economy: Evidence from the VTsIOM data," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 10(3), pages 689-717, November.
    2. Simon Clarke, 2002. "Making Ends Meet in Contemporary Russia," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 1951.
    3. Feige, Edgar L. & Urban, Ivica, 2008. "Measuring underground (unobserved, non-observed, unrecorded) economies in transition countries: Can we trust GDP?," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 287-306, June.
    4. Colin C. Williams & John Round, 2007. "Beyond Negative Depictions of Informal Employment: Some Lessons from Moscow," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2321-2338, November.
    5. Colin C. Williams, 2006. "The Hidden Enterprise Culture," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 3948.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Le Galès, Patrick & Vitale, Tommaso Prof, 2013. "Governing the large metropolis. A research agenda," SocArXiv 95zsc, Center for Open Science.
    2. Colin C. Williams & Ioana Horodnic, 2015. "Are Marginalised Populations More Likely to Engage in Undeclared Work in the Nordic Countries?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(3), pages 15-29, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Colin C. Williams & Jan Windebank, 2011. "Regional Variations in the Nature of the Shadow Economy: Evidence from a Survey of 27 European Union Member States," Chapters, in: Friedrich Schneider (ed.), Handbook on the Shadow Economy, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Byung-Yeon Kim, 2011. "The Unofficial Economy in Russia," KIER Working Papers 797, Kyoto University, Institute of Economic Research.
    3. Colin C. Williams & John Round, 2007. "Beyond Negative Depictions of Informal Employment: Some Lessons from Moscow," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(12), pages 2321-2338, November.
    4. Colin. C. Williams, 2008. "Illegitimate wage practices in Eastern Europe: - The case of 'envelope wages'," Journal of East European Management Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 13(3), pages 253-270.
    5. Colin C. Williams & John Round, 2008. "Gender Variations in the Nature of Undeclared Work: Evidence from Ukraine," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 13(4), pages 1-16, July.
    6. Williams Colin, 2009. "Evaluating the Extent and Nature of ‘Envelope Wages’ in the European Union: A Geographical Analysis," European Spatial Research and Policy, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 115-129, June.
    7. Abbi M Kedir & Meryem Duygun Fethi & Colin C Williams, 2011. "Evaluating tax evasion in the European Union: a case study of the prevalence and character of ‘envelope wage’ payments," Discussion Papers in Economics 11/33, Division of Economics, School of Business, University of Leicester, revised Jun 2011.
    8. Colin C. Williams & John Round, 2008. "The Hidden Enterprise Culture Of Moscow: Entrepreneurship And Off-The-Books Working Practices," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 13(04), pages 445-462.
    9. Colin C. Williams & Brunilda Kosta, 2019. "Evaluating Institutional Theories Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Albania," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 24(02), pages 1-17, June.
    10. Colin C. Williams & John Round & Peter Rodgers, 2009. "Evaluating The Motives Of Informal Entrepreneurs: Some Lessons From Ukraine," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 14(01), pages 59-71.
    11. Kim, Byung-Yeon, 2010. "Informal Economy Activities and Entrepreneurship in Russia," Proceedings of the German Development Economics Conference, Hannover 2010 55, Verein für Socialpolitik, Research Committee Development Economics.
    12. Elkhan Richard Sadik-Zada & Wilhelm Loewenstein & Yadulla Hasanli, 2021. "Production linkages and dynamic fiscal employment effects of the extractive industries: input-output and nonlinear ARDL analyses of Azerbaijani economy," Mineral Economics, Springer;Raw Materials Group (RMG);Luleå University of Technology, vol. 34(1), pages 3-18, April.
    13. Fadil Sahiti, 2021. "Institutions and entrepreneurial activity: a comparative analysis of Kosovo and other economies," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 10(1), pages 98-119, February.
    14. Hasan Yuksel, 2021. "An Investigation on the Link between International Labor Migration and Undocumented Employment: Evidence from Turkish Cinema," Journal of Economy Culture and Society, Istanbul University, Faculty of Economics, vol. 64(64), pages 21-46, December.
    15. Colin C. Williams & Sara J. Nadin, 2013. "Beyond the entrepreneur as a heroic figurehead of capitalism: re-representing the lived practices of entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(7-8), pages 552-568, September.
    16. Nezhyvenko, O., 2019. "Indirect or Macroeconomic Methods in Measuring the Informal Economy," Journal of Applied Management and Investments, Department of Business Administration and Corporate Security, International Humanitarian University, vol. 8(4), pages 201-215, December.
    17. Rajeev K. Goel & James W. Saunoris & Friedrich Schneider, 2019. "Growth In The Shadows: Effect Of The Shadow Economy On U.S. Economic Growth Over More Than A Century," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 37(1), pages 50-67, January.
    18. Feige, Edgar L., 2015. "Reflections on the meaning and measurement of Unobserved Economies: What do we really know about the “Shadow Economy”?," MPRA Paper 68466, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Colombo, Emilio & Onnis, Luisanna & Tirelli, Patrizio, 2016. "Shadow economies at times of banking crises: Empirics and theory," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 180-190.
    20. Ian Clark & Trevor Colling, 2018. "Work in Britain's Informal Economy: Learning from Road†Side Hand Car Washes," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 56(2), pages 320-341, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:16:y:2011:i:1:p:43-53. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.