From the Informal Economy to the Popular Economy: Concepts and Practices in Field Surveys.

The idea that the economies of the South are characterised by a large so-called ‘informal’ sector continues to dominate. The concept of the informal economy was coined in the 1970s to refer to the economies of the countries of the South, but the epistemological debate has tended to fade since the 1990s. As a result, there is a growing gap between empirical studies and their theoretical underpinnings. Today, the diversity and heterogeneity of the content covered by the notion of informal economy are such that this semantic category can no longer function as a concept. The use of the notion of popular economy stems from a series of intertwined theoretical traditions: 1- the Gramscian discussion of subaltern sectors, 2- British Marxist historiography, 3- a history from below valuing the practices and resistance of popular sectors. The tradition of subaltern and postcolonial studies has deepened these discussions from the margins, which, in the case of Latin America, has been reflected since the 1990s in the development of the notion of popular economy as a means of drawing attention to political alternatives on the continent. It was during our surveys in South America and in England, and our confrontation with Latin American colleagues, that the concept of popular economy appeared to us as more operative to describe economic activities which are neither informal nor totally illegal, but forged by experiences of creating income-generating economic activities and which are implemented by the populations without, however, being fully declared to the authorities. In this paper, we will attempt to move back and forth between categories and data, highlighting the different meanings of the activities observed in the logistics sector, particularly intermediary activities.