Informality: A Concept in Search of a Theory

In the face of the transformations of the "labor world", the debate on the term informality required conceptual re-elaborations in order to be adjusted to the "new times". Initially, the present essay adresses the first formulations about the term, specially the concepts of informal sector and informal economy. Subsequently, it sheds light on the main critiques to these initial formulations. Lastly, it presents three analytical approaches developed in an effort to re-elaborate the concepts, as well as their theoretical and methodological unfoldings, namely: Informality Process and the "new informality"; the approach that identifies the porous boundaries between the legal/illegal, formal/informal and the illicit; informality as the social form that labor takes in certain (theoretical) regions of the social order. The respective concepts are operationalized by different empirical researches. The intended aim is to evaluate the analytical potentialities of each approach through case studies.