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Labour and Petty Production

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  • Amrita Chhachhi
  • Barbara Harriss-White

Abstract

type="main"> One of many fracture zones in the right-less workforce is between wage labour, disguised wage labour (DWL) and petty commodity production (PCP) — between the formal and real subsumption of labour to capital. When the polar classes of capitalism leave much lying between them under conditions of generalized commodity production and circulation, where expansion is driven by multiplication of tiny units of production and trade rather than, or as well as, accumulation, what is to be done? In response to Saumyajit Bhattacharya's charge (in this issue) that the discourse used to explore PCP can support the de-legitimation of labour politics, this essay examines the definitions of, evidence for, and interpretation of DWL and PCP in the Indian case. It then addresses the theoretical and practical importance of PCP, its persistence, problems of its legal status and its politics.

Suggested Citation

  • Amrita Chhachhi & Barbara Harriss-White, 2014. "Labour and Petty Production," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(5), pages 981-1000, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:devchg:v:45:y:2014:i:5:p:981-1000
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/dech.12124
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gill, Kaveri, 2009. "Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780198060864.
    2. K. Sundaram, 2007. "Employment and Poverty in India: 2000-2005," Working Papers id:1100, eSocialSciences.
    3. Hazell, P.B.R. & Poulton, Colin & Wiggins, Steve & Dorward, Andrew, 2007. "The future of small farms for poverty reduction and growth:," 2020 vision discussion papers 42, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
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    Cited by:

    1. Colin C. Williams & Abbi Kedir, 2018. "Explaining Cross-National Variations In The Prevalence Of Informal Sector Entrepreneurship: Lessons From A Survey Of 142 Countries," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(01), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Aparna Sundar, 2018. "Skills for Work and the Work of Skills: Community, Labour and Technological Change in India’s Artisanal Fisheries," Journal of South Asian Development, , vol. 13(3), pages 272-292, December.
    3. Jessy K. Philip, 2023. "Who Are We Without Land? Repeasantization and Caste in a Village of South India," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 12(4), pages 488-513, December.
    4. Colin C. Williams, 2023. "A Modern Guide to the Informal Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 18668.
    5. Snehashish Bhattacharya & Surbhi Kesar, 2020. "Precarity and Development: Production and Labor Processes in the Informal Economy in India," Review of Radical Political Economics, Union for Radical Political Economics, vol. 52(3), pages 387-408, September.
    6. Colin C. Williams & Abbi M. Kedir, 2019. "Explaining cross-country variations in the prevalence of informal sector competitors: lessons from the World Bank Enterprise Survey," International Entrepreneurship and Management Journal, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 677-696, September.
    7. Colin C. Williams & Friedrich Schneider, 2016. "Measuring the Global Shadow Economy," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 16551.

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