Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T07:47:10.975Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Demography and Dispossession: Explaining the Growth of the Global Informal Workforce, 1950-2000

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 September 2019

Aaron Benanav Open the ORCID record for Aaron Benanav [Opens in a new window]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Since 1950, the world’s urban labor force has expanded dramatically, a process that has been accompanied by a large increase in informal employment. Accounts of these phenomena generally assume that urban workers without formal work are mostly recent migrants from the countryside. This article shows that outside of China, most of the growth of the world’s urban workforce has been the consequence of demographic expansion rather than rural-to-urban migration. A large portion of the world’s growing urban-born workforce has ended up in informal employment. I develop a concept of demographic dispossession to explain the relatively autonomous role demographic growth has played, first, in the proletarianization of the global population and, second, in the informalization of the urban workforce. I then explore the reasons why demographic growth in low- and medium-income countries tended to be more rapid and urban than demographic growth had been historically in the high-income countries.

Type
Research Article
Information
Social Science History , Volume 43 , Issue 4 , Winter 2019 , pp. 679 - 703
Copyright
© Social Science History Association, 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Akram-Lodhi, Haroon, and Kay, Cristóbal (2010) “Surveying the agrarian question (part 1): Current debates and beyond.” Journal of Peasant Studies 37 (2): 255–84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Angus, Ian, and Butler, Simon (2011) Too Many People? Population, Immigration, and the Environmental Crisis. Chicago: Haymarket Books.Google Scholar
Araghi, Farshad (1995) “Global depeasantization, 1945–1990.” The Sociological Quarterly 36 (2): 337–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arndt, H. W. (1989) Economic Development: The History of an Idea. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bairoch, Paul, and Goertz, Gary (1986) “Factors of urbanisation in the nineteenth-century developed countries: A descriptive and econometric analysis.” Urban Studies 23 (4): 285–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bairoch, Paul, and Limbor, J. M. (1968) “Changes in the industrial distribution of the world labour force, by region, 1880–1960.” International Labour Review 98 (4): 311–36.Google Scholar
Bernstein, Henry (2010) Class Dynamics of Agrarian Change. Sterling, VA: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
Bloom, David, Canning, David, and Sevilla, Jaypee (2003) The Demographic Dividend: A New Perspective on the Economic Consequences of Population Change. Arlington, VA: Rand.Google Scholar
Bloom, David, Canning, David, Fink, Günther, and Finlay, Jocelyn (2009) “Fertility, female labor force participation, and the demographic dividend.” Journal of Economic Growth 14 (2): 79–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bongaarts, John, and Bulatao, Rodolfo (2001) Beyond Six Billion: Forecasting the World’s Population. Washington, DC: National Research Council.Google Scholar
Bradshaw, Y. W. (1987) “Urbanization and underdevelopment: A global study of modernization, urban bias, and economic dependency.” American Sociological Review 52 (2): 224–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breman, Jan (1976) “A dualistic labour system? A critique of the ‘informal sector’ concept: I: The informal sector.” Economic and Political Weekly 11 (48): 1870–76.Google Scholar
Breman, Jan (1994) Wage Hunters and Gatherers: Search for Work in the Urban and Rural Economy of South Gujarat. Delhi: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Breman, Jan (1996) Footloose Labour: Working in India’s Informal Economy. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breman, Jan, and van der Linden, Marcel (2014) “Informalizing the economy: The return of the social question at a global level.” Development and Change 45 (5): 920–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brenner, Robert (2006) Economics of Global Turbulence. New York: Verso Books.Google Scholar
Brenner, Robert (2007) “Property and progress: Where Adam Smith went wrong,” in Wickham, Chris (ed.) Marxist History-Writing for the Twenty-First Century. Oxford: Oxford University Press: 49–111.Google Scholar
Bromley, Ray (1978) “Introduction—The urban informal sector: Why is it worth discussing?” World Development 6 (9): 1033–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bryceson, Deborah (2000) “Disappearing peasantries? Rural labour redundancy in the neo-liberal era and beyond,” in Bryceson, D., Kay, C., and Mooij, J. (eds.) Disappearing Peasantries: Rural Labour in Africa, Asia and Latin America. London: IT Publications: 299–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, John (1986) “Routes to low mortality in poor countries.” Population and Development Review 12 (2): 171–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caldwell, John (2006) Demographic Transition Theory. Dordrecht: Springer.Google Scholar
Charmes, Jacques (2012) “The informal economy worldwide: Trends and characteristics.” Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research 6 (2): 103–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cleland, John (2001) “The effects of improved survival on fertility: A reassessment.” Population and Development Review 27 (supplement): 60–92.Google Scholar
Davis, Kingsley (1945) “The world demographic transition.” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 237: 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, Mike (2006) Planet of Slums. New York: Verso Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Laiglesia, Juan R., and Jütting, Johannes, eds. (2009) Is Informal Normal? Towards More and Better Jobs in Developing Countries. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Dyson, Tim (2001) “A partial theory of world development: The neglected role of the demographic transition in the shaping of modern society.” International Journal of Population Geography 7 (2): 67–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dyson, Tim (2010) Population and Development: The Demographic Transition. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2000) State of Food and Agriculture 2000. Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (2015) FAOSTAT, 2015 edition. Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Fogel, Robert (2004) The Escape from Hunger and Premature Death, 1700–2100: Europe, America and the Third World. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, Andre Gunder (1966) “The development of underdevelopment.” The Monthly Review (18): 17–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Groningen Growth and Development Centre (2015) 10-Sector Database, 2015 edition. Groningen: University of Groningen.Google Scholar
Haggblade, Steven, Peter, B. R. Hazell, and Reardon, Thomas (2007) Transforming the Rural Nonfarm Economy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University.Google Scholar
Harris, John, and Todaro, Michael (1970) “Migration, unemployment and development: A two-sector analysis.” American Economic Review 40 (1): 126–42.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (1960) Why Labour Leaves the Land: A Comparative Study of the Movement of Labour out of Agriculture. Geneva: International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (1961) Employment Objectives in Economic Development. Geneva: International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (1964) Employment and Economic Growth. Geneva: International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (1969) Report of the Director-General: The World Employment Program. Geneva: International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (2002) Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture. Geneva: International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization (2015) Key Indicators of the Labor Market Database, 2015 edition. Geneva: International Labour Organization.Google Scholar
Janssens, Angélique (2007) “‘Were women present at the demographic transition?’ A question revisited.” History of the Family 12 (1): 43–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kohli, Atul (2006) “Politics of economic growth in India, 1980–2005, part I: The 1980s.” Economic and Political Weekly 41 (13): 1251–59.Google Scholar
Kohli, Atul (2012) Poverty amid Plenty in the New India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis, W. Arthur (1954) “Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour.” The Manchester School 22 (2): 139–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipton, Michael (1977) Why Poor People Stay Poor: Urban Bias in World Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Livi-Bacci, Massimo (2006) A Concise History of World Population, 4rth ed. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.Google Scholar
Mackinnon, Alison (1995) “Were women present at the demographic transition? Questions from a feminist historian to historical demographers.” Gender and History 7 (2): 222–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Maddison, Angus (2010) “Statistics on world population, GDP and per capita GDP, 1-2008 AD.” www.ggdc.net/maddison/Historical_Statistics/horizontal-file_02-2010.xls (access date needed).Google Scholar
Mammen, Kristin, and Paxon, Christina (2000) “Women’s work and economic development.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 14 (4): 141–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martine, George, McGranahan, Gordon, Montgomery, Mark, and Fernández-Castilla, Rogelio, eds. (2008) The New Global Frontier: Urbanization, Poverty, and Environment in the 21st Century. Sterling, VA: Earthscan Publications.Google Scholar
McKeown, Thomas (1976) The Modern Rise of Population. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Montgomery, Mark R., Stren, Richard, Cohen, Barney, and Reed, Holly E., eds. (2004) Cities Transformed: Demographic Change and Its Implications in the Developing World. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Naughton, Barry (2007) The Chinese Economy: Transitions and Growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Notestein, Frank W. (1945) “Population—The Long View,” in Schultz, Theodore W. (ed.) Food for the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 36–57.Google Scholar
Ocampo, Antonio (2004) “Latin America’s growth and equity frustrations during structural reforms.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (2): 67–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (2014) How Was Life? Global Well-Being since 1820. Paris: OECD.Google Scholar
Omran, Abdel (1971) “The epidemiological transition: A theory of the epidemiology of population change.” The Milibank Memorial Fund Quarterly 49 (4): 509–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Park, Albert, and Xiaobo, Qu (2013) “Informality, returns to education, and labour market integration in China.” The Indian Journal of Labour Economics 56 (4): 617–34.Google Scholar
Pfaffenzeller, Stephan, Newbold, Paul, and Rayner, Anthony (2007) “A Short note on updating the Grilli and Yang commodity price index.” World Bank Economic Review 21 (1): 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Portes, Alejandro, and Schauffler, R. (1993) “Competing perspectives on the Latin American informal sector.” Population and Development Review 19 (1): 33–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Preston, Samuel (1979) “Urban growth in developing countries: A demographic reappraisal.” Population and Development Review 5 (2): 195–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Roy, Ananya (2004) “Transnational trespassings: The geopolitics of urban informality,” in Roy, Ananya and AlSayyad, Nezar (eds.) Urban informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. New York: Lexington Books: 289–317.Google Scholar
Roy, Ananya, and AlSayyad, Nezar, eds. (2004) Urban informality: Transnational Perspectives from the Middle East, Latin America, and South Asia. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Reher, David (2007) “Toward long-term population decline: A discussion of relevant issues.” European Journal of Population 23 (2): 189–207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, James C. (2001) Rising Life Expectancy: A Global History. New York: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riley, James C. (2005) Poverty and Life Expectancy: The Jamaica Paradox. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Riley, James C. (2008) Low Income, Social Growth, and Good Health: A History of Twelve Countries. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Safa, Helen (1986) “Urbanization, the informal economy and state policy in Latin America.” Urban Anthropology 15 (1): 135–63.Google Scholar
Seers, Dudley (1970) “The meaning of development.” Revista Brasileira de Economía 24 (3): 29–50.Google Scholar
Sethuraman, S. V. (1981) “Introduction,” in Sethuraman, S.V. (ed.) The Urban Informal Sector in Developing Countries. Geneva: International Labour Organization: (page numbers needed).Google Scholar
Soares, Rodrigo (2007) “On the determinants of mortality reductions in the developing world.” Population and Development Review 33 (2): 247–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szreter, Simon (1993) “The idea of demographic transition and the study of fertility change: A critical intellectual history.” Population and Development Review 19 (4): 659–701.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Szreter, Simon (2011) “Theories and heuristics: How best to approach the study of historic fertility declines?” Historical Social Research 36 (2): 65–98.Google Scholar
Tacoli, Cecilia, McGranahan, Gordon, and Satterthwaite, David (2008) “Urbanization, poverty and inequity: Is rural–urban migration a poverty problem, or part of the solution?,” in Martine, George, McGranahan, Gordon, Montgomery, Mark, and Fernández-Castilla, Rogelio (eds.) The New Global Frontier. Sterling, VA: Earthscan Publications: 37–53.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles (1984) “Demographic origins of the European proletariat,” in Levine, David (ed.) Proletarianization and Family History. New York: Academic Press: 1–85.Google Scholar
Timmer, M. P., de Vries, G. J., & de Vries, K. (2015) “Patterns of Structural Change in Developing Countries,” in Weiss, J., and Tribe, M. (eds.) Routledge Handbook of Industry and Development. New York: Routledge: 65–83.Google Scholar
Turchin, Peter (2009) “Long-term population cycles in human societies,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (1162): 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Nations (1951) Measures for the Economic Development of Under-Developed Countries. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (1980) Patterns of Urban and Rural Population Growth. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (2001) The Components of Urban Growth in Developing Countries. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (2014) World Urbanization Prospects, 2014 edition. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
United Nations (2015) World Population Prospects, 2015 edition. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
UN Conference on Trade and Development (1989) Trade and Development Report. New York: United Nations.Google Scholar
UN-HABITAT (2003) The Challenge of Slums. Sterling, VA: Earthscan Publications.Google Scholar
Wilson, Chris, and Airey, Pauline (1999) “How can a homeostatic perspective enhance demographic transition theory?” Population Studies 53 (2): 117–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
World Bank (2008) World Development Report. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar
World Bank (2016) World Development Indicators, 2016 edition. Washington, DC: World Bank.Google Scholar