Re-Imagining Labour Law for Development: Informal Work in the Global North and South

Description

The aim of this book is to explore labour law’s conceptual and normative narrative. If labour law is informed by the wider political and economic landscape within which it operates, then given the declining prevalence of the post-war model of full employment within a formal welfare state regime, what shape does or should labour law assume in response to the transformation of the political economy in countries of the global North? Correspondingly, what is the proper role to be played by labour law and labour relations institutions in the development process within industrialising countries of the global South, where informal employment has long been, and remains, the predominant form? Drawing on the expertise of leading labour law scholars, this collection addresses those questions by examining the growth and continued prevalence of informality. Offering research that is both empirically grounded and doctrinally astute, the book explores the changing character of labour law in the global North and South. Acknowledgements Contents Notes on Contributors Introduction: Narratives of Informality and Development I. Introduction II. Law, Institutions and Development: The Logic of Formalisation III. Overview of the Book PART I: THEORISING INFORMALITY AND INFORMALISATION: HISTORICAL AND DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES 1. Historicising Labour in Development: Labour Market Formalisation through the Lens of British Colonial Administration I. Introduction II. Representing Work: Formality and Informality Reconsidered III. Development and Formalisation IV. Informality, Work, and the Uses of History V. Lugard - The Dual Mandate in British Tropical Africa VI. Furnivall - Colonial Policy and Practice VII. Formalisation for Development Revisited 2. Labour Law, Development Discourse and the Uses of Informality I. Informality as Methodological Misfit II. ‘Conceptualising Informality’ as Strategic Context III. Conclusions: Using Informality Strategically 3. Informalisation in International Labour Regulation Policy: Profiles of an Unravelling I. Introduction II. Post-crisis Informality and the Unacceptable Forms of Work Paradigm III. Informalisation: Towards the Regulatory Conduits IV. Informalisation in International Regulatory Policy V. Conclusions: Towards a Refined Conception of Informalisation in Global Regulatory Policy PART II: INTERDISCIPLINARY APPROACHES: HISTORICAL, INSTITUTIONAL AND POLITICAL ECONOMY 4. Do Human Rights Work for Informal Workers? I. Introduction II. Labour Rights as Human Rights III. Problems with the Labour Rights as Human Rights Strategy IV. Informal Work and Workers’ Experience V. Conclusion: A Rights Plus Approach 5. Labour Law as a Luxury in the Global South? A Case Study from Zimbabwe I. Introduction II. The Colonial Period: 1890–1980 III. The Post-independence Decade: 1980–1990 IV. The ESAP Period: 1991–1996 V. The Crisis Period: 1997–2008 VI. The Post-crisis Period: 2009 to the End of the Mugabe Era VII. Reflections on Zimbabwe’s Labour Market and the Implications for Labour and Social Security Law VIII. Conclusion: Opportunities for Further Research 6. Insiders, Outsiders and Conflicts of Interest I. Introduction II. Conflicts of Interest and Labour Law III. An Outline Critique IV. Case Study V. Conclusion 7. The Different Meanings of Formalisation. Experiments from the South: The Case of Argentina I. Introduction II. Informality: A Polysemous Concept III. Reshaping the Self-Employment Category IV. Formalising Paid Domestic Work V. Conclusion 8. Supply Chains and Temporary Migrant Labour: The Relevance of Trade and Sustainability Frameworks I. Introduction II. Connections between Supply Chains, Trade in Services and Migrant Labour III. The Role of Trade Law in Maintaining Vulnerability of Temporary Migrants in Contemporary Supply Chains IV. Sustainable Development Goals as a Basis for State Action to Protect Migrants in Supply Chains V. Conclusion PART III: EMPIRICAL APPROACHES: REGULATING INFORMALITY 9. What is Actually Regulating Work? A Study of Restaurants in Indonesia and Australia I. Introduction II. Research Methods and Analytical Approach III. Findings in Yogyakarta, Indonesia IV. Findings in Melbourne, Australia V. Reflections on the Results of the Two Studies VI. Plural Work Regulation and Promoting Worker Security and Well-being VII. Conclusions 10. Labour Laws, Informality, and Development: Comparing India and China I. Introduction II. Defining Informality III. Formalisation and Informalisation in Historical Perspective IV. The Evolution of Labour Market Regulation in India and China V. A Closer Look at Informality in India and China: Statistical Data and Interview Evidence VI. Conclusion Index