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Class Differentiation and the Informal Sector in Amman, Jordan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2009

Rebecca Miles Doan
Rebecca Miles Doan
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, Florida State University, Tallahassee
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Extract

Studies of economic activities among the urban poor in various parts of the world have found more variation in the so-called informal sector than they had expected. The urban poor had typically been thought of as a kind of “reserve army” for the formal sector, an underclass at the margins of survival. Even early work that recognized the links between the formal and informal sectors lumped them together as a single class that ranked below all the others. The tendency to regard workers in the informal sector as members of an underclass masked the tremendous variations among them and between informal sectors in different places.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 24 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 27 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

Author's note: I gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of Dr. Leila Bisharat, Principal Investigator of the Amman Health and Population Assessments; Dr. Hisham Zagha, Director of the Urban Development Department in Amman; and the staff of the Population Affairs Division of the UDD. Without them, this research would not have taken place. I would also like to thank Peter Doan, Nathan Browne, and the anonymous reviewers for their comments on the various drafts of this article.

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10 I refer here to both refugees and migrants since many West Bankers came to Amman between 1948 and 1967 in search of employment. They are not technically refugees, but the economic stagnation of the West Bank was indirectly a result of the war of 1948 and subsequent Jordanian policy.

11 Rosemary, Sayigh, “Palestinians in Camps: The New Reality, 1948–1965,” in Talal, Asad and Roger, Owen, eds. Sociology of “Developing Societies”: The Middle East (London, 1983).Google Scholar

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14 Portes, Castells, and Benton, , The Informal Economy, pp. 20–25. Studies also document a return to informal employment relations as a result of oppressive government policy regulating access to jobs and firms in the formal sectorGoogle Scholar (see Hernando, de Soto, The Other Path: the Invisible Revolution in the Third World [New York, 1989]).Google Scholar

15 Ibid., p. 31.

16 Urban Development Department (UDD), Health and Population in Squatter Areas of Amman: A Reassessment after Four Years of Upgrading (Amman, 1986).

17 These four areas were the first to undergo a squatter area upgrading project implemented by the Amman Municipality. It entailed the regularization of tenure, the provision of public services, and the construction of community facilities, The areas were selected for project reasons and are not representative of uncontrolled settlements in Amman; they are, however, representative of refugee settlements.

18 Research Triangle Institute (RTI), Jordan: Urban Development Assessment (Raleigh, N.C., 1985).

19 Jofeh is one of the case studies included in HABITAT, Survey of Slum and Squatter Settlements, vol. 1 (Dublin, 1982), pp. 88–89; it includes a brief historical description.

20 See William, Armstrong and McGee, T. G., Theatres of Accumulation: Studies in Asian and Latin American Urbanization (London and New York, 1985), p. 13, for a concise summary of the debate over the conceptualization of the informal sector; also Portes and Walton, Labor, Class, and the International System.Google Scholar

21 Alejandro, Portes and Saskia, Sassen-Koob, “Making it Underground: The Western Informal Sector,” American Journal of Sociology, 93, 1 (1987), 40.Google Scholar

22 To my knowledge, neither Portes nor Bromley have referred to this group as a separate class position. In this study, it is assumed that their ownership of capital sets them apart.

23 Raymond, Bromley and Christopher, Birkbeck, “Urban Economy and Employment: A Framework for Analyzing the Economic Activities of the Urban Poor under Peripheral Capitalism,” in Michael, Pacione, ed., The Geography of the Third World: Progress and Prospect (London, 1988), pp. 19–20.Google Scholar

24 See Rebecca, Miles Doan, “Class and Family Structure: A Study of Child Nutritional Status in Four Urban Settlements in Amman, Jordan” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1988) for greater detail on the measurement of class.Google Scholar

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26 The survey did not specifically ask whether or not the petty traders were licensed. The experience of those involved in the squatter area upgrading project however suggests that before the project, none of the petty traders were licensed. As a result of the project, every attempt was made to license them all; how successful this was remains to be seen.

27 At the time of the survey, one Jordanian dinar was worth approximately $2.50.

28 By the time of the 1985 survey and as a result of the municipality's upgrading project, living conditions in the uncontrolled settlements in this study had vastly improved and residents were in the process of buying their plot of land at reasonable rates. Those included in the survey are therefore those who chose to remain in the areas rather than to move to temporary shelter elsewhere or to buy into one of the low-income housing schemes located on the outskirts of the city.

29 Larissa, Lomnitz, “Mechanisms of Articulation between Shantytown Settlers and the Urban System,” Urban Anthropology 7–8 (1978–1979), 185.Google Scholar

30 Portes, , Castells, , and Benton, , Informal Economy, p. 299.Google Scholar

31 Alejandro, Portes and Lauren, Benton, “Industrial Development and Labor Absorption”, Population and Development Review 10, 4 (1984), 597–98.Google Scholar

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33 The survey did not specifically ask respondents why they “chose” a job in the informal sector, but detailed information is available on both individual and household income and can be obtained from the author.

34 Portes, , Castells, , and Benton, , Informal Economy, p. 301.Google Scholar

35 Unless otherwise noted, all of the macroeconomic information for this section was taken from the collection of papers compiled by Khader, and Badran, , The Economic Development of Jordan, and from the Economist Intelligence Unit Quarterly Economic Review of Jordan (London, 1985).Google Scholar

36 UDD, A Baseline Health and Population Assessment for the Upgrading Areas of Amman (Amman, 1982).

37 Portes, and Sassen-Koob, , “Making it Underground”; Lourdes, Beneria and Martha, Roldan, The Crossroads of Class and Gender: Industrial Homework, Subcontracting, and Household Dynamics in Mexico City (Chicago, 1987).Google Scholar

38 See Doan, “Class and Family Structure,” for the write-up of one such attempt.