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Contributions from
the Column
Books and Media
Germany's development policy
Life in the global village –
a world full of insecurities
Theory of civil society –
roots and interconnections
Reports and statistical data
02/2004 |
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[ Gloomy outlook ]
Life in the global village –
a world full of insecurities
Elmar Altvater and Birgit Mahnkopf see the progressive global transformation of economic, social and political life linked with increasing “informality”. In their view, what is commonly described as globalisation is concomitant with a “high degree of personal and socio-economic insecurity”. Proceeding from this basic assumption they define informality as a process in which norms, forms and institutions are being eroded. They examine this phenomenon at the three levels of work, money and politics.
The vagueness of the term informality presents the authors not only with opportunities but also risks. Thus they are able to use various gradations of informality for this analysis. For instance, in the chapter on growing job insecurity amid the globalisation process, their focus ranges from the precarious autonomy of Western European one-man firms to the sweatshops of the Southeast Asian textile industry. According to international estimates, one-quarter of working people worldwide earn their living in the informal sector.
Concerning the financial markets, the authors cover the barter transactions between companies and between companies and states, as well as the granting of micro-loans in African countries by NGOs (in many places the credit market is closed to micro-loan borrowers). And at the political level “functional informality” in the form of shadow governments (like Germany’s “Alliance for Jobs”, regular meetings by representatives of government, labour and economy) has its place just as much as “‘disorderly' informality”. The latter can be characterised by the collapse of entire states due to ethnic conflicts or by the setting up of illegal parallel economies (drugs, pirate copying).
On the other hand, the vagueness of the term is also irritating. Does it really make sense to squeeze European “moonlighting” and the shadow economy in the Third World together in one common concept of informality? Is not informality in this broad definition inherent in all (historical) societies and therefore by no means inevitably to be attributed to globalisation effects?
Altvater/Mahnkopf take a clear position: they reject all neoliberal approaches which consider the development of informal structures (other than criminal dealings) as opportunities to solve problems in the sense of dynamic flexibility. The book is written in clear, argumentative-analytical language which from time to time is illustrated with specific examples. Unfortunately, concrete suggestions for solutions and alternatives do not get the attention they deserve in this deeply sceptical and pessimistic analysis of problems.
Jürgen Schmidt
Elmar Altvater, Birgit Mahnkopf: Globalisierung der Unsicherheit. Arbeit im Schatten, schmutziges Geld und informelle Politik [Globalisation of Insecurity. Work in the Shadows, Dirty Money and Informal Politics].
Münster, Westfälisches Dampfboot 2002, 393 pp., Euro 24.80, ISBN 3-89691-513-4 [in German]
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