INFORMAL LABOR IN A CAPITALIST ECONOMY: URBAN MEXICO (WOMEN, DATA COLLECTING, DEVELOPMENT, EMPLOYMENT)

This dissertation addresses the phenomenon of the absorption of surplus population into the informal sector of the labor force. A critique of the theory of the "marginality" of the informal sector is presented, and the concept of the relative surplus population is offered as a more useful alternative. Reviewed are measurements of "economic activity:" the diverse and often misleading methods of defining and measuring levels and categories of employment and unemployment; the limited value of Mexico's Census data in making visible the pattern of employment in the informal sector. It is concluded that official terms, concepts, and assumptions depicting the socioeconomic picture are political distortions which minimize the plight of this unorganized segment of the labor force.;The role of the State in attempting to solve or ameliorate the economic inequalities is evaluated through historical examples. Its initial success in terms of increased domestic product, gross national product, per capita income and industrial output, was a short-term gain followed by an apparently irreversible decline in all economic indicators.;Mexican working women in the informal sector as singled out as an important category who are nearly invisible in the Census. Their overwhelming participation in the informal economy is documented and alternative approaches to measuring womens' economic activities are proposed.;Arguments are made in support of the productivity of the informal labor sector, contrary to the myth of their parasitic impact. The informal sector is understood in relation to the reserve army of labor, and seen as integral to the entire system of "economic activity."...