We identify a basic dualism between capitalist and noncapitalist spaces within the vast informal sector in India, and show that this dualism has been reproduced and reinforced during the past decade of high economic growth. This calls into question the idea of capitalist transition that informs much of the discourse on economic development. We provide some preliminary arguments about the nature of this dualism and the process of reproduction of the noncapitalist economic space.
BasoleAmitDeepankarBasuBhattacharyaRajesh. 2015. Determinants and impacts of subcontracting: Evidence from India’s unorganised manufacturing sector. International Review of Applied Economics29 (3): 374–402.
2.
BernsteinHenry. 2009. V.I. Lenin and A.V. Chayanov: Looking back, looking forward. The Journal of Peasant Studies36 (1): 55–81.
3.
BhaduriAmit. 2017. A study in development by dispossession. Cambridge Journal of Economics42 (1): 19–31.
4.
BhattacharyaRajeshBhattacharyaSnehashishSanyal.Kalyan2013. Dualism in the informal economy: Exploring the Indian informal manufacturing sector. In Development and Sustainability: India in a Global Perspective, eds. BanerjeeSharmilaChakrabartiAnjan, 339–62. New Delhi: Springer.
5.
BhattacharyaSnehashish. 2017. Reproduction of noncapital: A Marxian perspective on the informal economy in India. In Knowledge, Class, and Economics: Marxism without Guarantees, eds. BurczakTheodore A.GarnettRobert F.McintyreRichard, 346–58. NewYork: Routledge.
6.
BremanJan. 2003. The Laboring Poor in India: Patterns of Exploitation, Subordination and Exclusion. New York: Oxford University Press.
7.
ChakrabartiAnjanCullenbergStephen. 2003. Transition and Development in India. New York: Routledge.
8.
ChakrabartiSaumya. 2016. Inclusive Growth and Social Change: Formal-Informal-Agrarian Relations in India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
9.
ChayanovAlexander V.1966. On the theory of non-capitalist economic systems. In A.V. Chayanov on the Theory of Peasant Economy, eds. ThornerDanielKerblayBasileSmithRobert E. F., 1–28. Homewood: Richard D. Irwin.
10.
DavisMike. 2006. Planet of Slums. London: Verso.
11.
De SotoHernando. 1989. The Other Path: The Informal Revolution. New York: HarperCollins.
12.
FalcoPaoloHaywoodLuke. 2016. Entrepreneurship versus joblessness: Explaining the rise in self-employment. Journal of Development Economics118: 245–65.
13.
Harriss-WhiteBarbara. 2012. Capitalism and the common man: Peasants and petty production in Africa and South Asia. Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy1 (2): 109–60.
14.
La PortaRafaelShleiferAndrei. 2014. Informality and development. Journal of Economic Perspectives28 (3): 109–26.
15.
LewisArthur W.1954. Economic development with unlimited supplies of labor. The Manchester School22 (2): 139–91.
16.
MaloneyWilliam F.2004. Informality revisited. World Development32 (7): 1159–78.
17.
MandelmanFederico S.Montes-RojasGabriel V.2009. Is self-employment and micro-entrepreneurship a desired outcome?World Development37 (12): 1914–25.
18.
MarxKarl. [1867] 1977. Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. Vol. 1. New York: Vintage Books.
19.
MeagherKate. 2013. Unlocking the informal economy: A literature review on linkages between formal and informal economies in developing countries (Working Paper No. 27). Cambridge: Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO).
20.
MehrotraSantoshGandhiAnkitaSahaParthaSahooBimal K.2012. Joblessness and informalization: Challenges to inclusive growth in India (IAMR Occasional Paper 9). New Delhi: Planning Commission of India.
21.
MoserCaroline O.1978. Informal sector or petty commodity production: Dualism or dependence in urban development?World Development6 (9): 1041–64.
22.
National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector. 2007. Definitional and Statistical Issues: Task Force Report. New Delhi: National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector.
23.
NunJosé. 2000. The end of work and the “marginal mass” thesis. Latin American Perspectives27 (1): 6–32.
24.
QuijanoAnibal. 1974. The marginal pole of the economy and the marginalized labor force. Economy and Society3 (4): 393–428.
25.
Raj, S. N. Rajesh, and Kunal Sen. 2016. Out of the Shadows? The Informal Sector in Post Reform India. New Delhi: Oxford.
26.
RakowskiCathy A., ed. 1994. Contrapunto: The Informal Sector Debate in Latin America. Albany: State University of New York Press.
27.
RanisGustavStewartFrances. 1999. V-goods and the role of the urban informal sector in development. Economic Development and Cultural Change47 (2): 259–88.
28.
RuccioDavid F.2010. Development and Globalization: A Marxian Class Analysis. New York: Routledge.
29.
SanyalKalyan. 2007. Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-colonial Capitalism. New Delhi: Routledge.
30.
TabakFarukCrichlowMichaeline A. eds. 2000. Informalization: Process and Structure. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
31.
TingorRobert. 2004. Unlimited supplies of labor. The Manchester School72 (6): 691–711.
32.
WilsonTamar Diana. 1998. The urban informal sector. Latin American Perspectives25 (2): 3–17.