The inform-what economy?
If we consider the “informal economy to be the activity which goes unregulated in an otherwise regulated system, then informal economies are as old as their formal counterparts”, affirms Wikipedia. It seems humans have always adjusted their activity within economic systems in attempt to evade regulations, by not paying taxes, not being monitored by any government and therefore not being included in the gross national product (GNP). The global informal economy accounts for:
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$10 trillion = second biggest GDP in the world,
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in emerging markets, it employs up to 80% of the workforce,
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and is the fasted growing economy in developed and emerging markets.
In the early 1970’s, money promptly became ungovernable due to neoliberalism and the privatization of public interest, resulting in the creation of multinationals corporations that introduced complexity in the system. As anthropologic economist Keith Hart supports, informality is a product between bureaucracy and people. Political policies and global money face an evermore worldwide labyrinthine challenge, probably why experienced Keith Hart advocates, “regulation is a joke now!”.
Learning from complex adaptive systems, dialectics of forms between de-localized and re-localized contexts, ecosystemic models based on incentives and organization, living in extremely fast environments generally outpacing humans, is not a smooth task. Experts claim it is crucial to converge efforts in recognizing social forms or patterns inside the organized chaos. To some extent a Gestaltist approach, allowing the breakup of elements from the whole situation into what it really is, finding the variables in the invariable.
The informal economy often takes place inside a flexible trusted network in which flexibility comes from negotiating the limits of mutual trust. Other primary variables are time and money, as Niti Bhan eloquently adds, “the only certainty is uncertainty”. Thus, unlike industrialized contexts of long-term planning, emerging informal markets often rely on short-term risky investments for survival. However sustainability, simplicity and collaboration are key assets of informality while complex systems have no space specific rooted local norms.
On another note, we should benefit from the world’s “meta-instability” to renew ourselves. According to Scott Smith, demographics are the main drivers to go “from growth, to functional innovation towards resilience”. Maybe corporations can face disruptions by setting the stage, creating minimum infrastructure and letting society participate and build upon. Besides, there is great importance in the “making”, according to Richard Tyson, “it is not about solving complex problems but negotiating with present environments”. Indeed organizations made possible prosperity, we shouldn’t turn our backs on them, instead we should look for the right environments in which shifting from an informal economy to a human economy is achievable. Quoting John Thackara, “from control to stewardship”.
Studies show that many of the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) are on top when it comes to happiness index despite consuming 20 times less resources than industrialized countries. Knowing the emerging countries represent 80% of the globe’s population, who has to learn from who in order to change?
Thank you for reading!
Tiago
