Late 1960s Study in Accra, Ghana
- focus of study: low-income activities in Accra of unskilled migrants from Northern Ghana who could not find wage employment
- coined term “informal sector”
- key question: does the “reserve army of urban unemployed and underemployed” constitute a passive exploited majority OR do their informal economy activities “possess some autonomous capacity for generating incomes”?
- answer: both - external constraints/capitalist domination + autonomous capacity
Typology of Informal Activities
- Legitimate
- Primary and secondary activities: farmers and market gardeners + building/construction contractors + artisans, shoemakers, tailors + beer-alcohol brewers
- Tertiary enterprises with relatively large capital inputs: those who deal in housing + transport + utilities + commodity speculation + rentier activities
- Small-scale distribution: market operatives + petty traders and street hawkers + caterers in food and brink + bar attendants + carriers + commission agents and dealers
- Other services: musicians + launderers + shoeshiners + barbers + night-soil removers + photographers + vehicle repair and other maintenance workers + brokers and middlemen + those who practice ritual services, magic, and medicine
- Illegitimate
- Services: hustlers and spivs + receivers of stolen goods + usurers and pawnbrokers + drug-pushers + prostitutes and pimps + smugglers + those who live off bribery, political corruption, protection rackets