Beyond Market‐Oriented Readings of Paid Informal Work

Colin Williams

American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 2006, vol. 65, issue 2, 383-406

Abstract: Abstract. Paid informal work is often conceptualized as a form of economic activity conducted under work relations akin to formal employment, heavily imbued with profit motivations on the part of both the consumer and supplier. The aim of this article, however, is to evaluate critically this market‐oriented reading of paid informal work. Drawing upon face‐to‐face interviews with 350 households in five localities in rural England, the finding is that just 7 percent of paid informal tasks are conducted for businesses and people that suppliers do not define as friends, neighbors, or kin, and only 17 percent for primarily profit‐motivated purposes. This article thus displays the need to move away from a market‐oriented reading of paid informal work and to recognize the heterogeneity of the social relations and motives involved in this sphere.

Date: 2006
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https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2006.00455.x

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