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Informality and Inequality in a Globalized and Urbanized World

This paper examines inequality in the domain of work with a specific focus on informal work. It explores the relationship between informal employment, income poverty and income inequality, featuring national data dis-aggregated in telling ways, as well as grounded research findings, and brings in...

Realizing Rights for Homeworkers: An Analysis of Governance Mechanisms

Marlese von Broembsen, Jenna Harvey, Marty Chen

Carr Centre Discussion Paper Abstract: Following the Rana Plaza factory fires four years ago, the labour rights violations in global supply chains, and indeed the governance of global supply chains, has become a pressing global issue. This paper evaluates key existing global and national supply...

Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Brief

Florence Bonnet, Joann Vanek, Marty Chen

This publication is a brief version of the 3rd edition of Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (ILO 2018). The 3rd edition of Women and Men in the Informal Economy estimates that two billion (61 per cent) of the global employed population earn their living in the informal...

Informal Employment in the Global South: Globalization, Production Relations and "Precarity"

Michael Rogan, Sally Roever, Marty Chen, Françoise Carré

This book presents original theory and research on precarious work in various parts of the world, identifying its social, political, and economic origins, its manifestations in the USA, Europe, Asia, and the Global South, and its consequences for personal and family life.

Informal Worker Organising and Mobilisation: Linking Global with Local Advocacy

Chris Bonner, Marty Chen, Françoise Carré, Rhonda Douglas

Inclusive Public Spaces for Informal Livelihoods: A Discussion Paper for Urban Planners and Policy Makers

Marty Chen

The Discussion Paper opens with a brief overview of academic discourse and policy debates on public space. Section II presents recent statistical data and research findings on the size and composition of the urban informal workforce. Section III details the exclusionary practices of many cities...

Including the Excluded: Supporting Informal Workers for More Equal and Productive Cities in the Global South

Marty Chen, Victoria A. Beard

This World Resources Institute (WRI) paper examines the challenges facing the world’s urban informal workers and the barriers that exclusionary cities pose to informal livelihoods. This is the fourth paper in WRI’s flagship World Resources Report, “Towards a More Equal City.” Through a focus on home...

Technology & Urban Informal Workers

Marty Chen

Urban Livelihoods: Reviewing the Evidence in Support of the New Urban Agenda

Caroline Skinner, Marty Chen, Sally Roever

The New Urban Agenda, the 20-year strategy on sustainable urbanization, was formally adopted by over 160 countries at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development (Habitat III) in October 2016. The final document explicitly recognizes “the contribution of the working...