This research axis is coordinated by Jérome Porta (UB) and Giuliano Martiniello (UIR)

Overall motivation

This research axis was born in WP7, in which researchers from the disciplines of economics, political science and law jointly questioned the relationship between informality and social equity.

Informality is a category widely utilized within the social sciences. It often serves as a backdrop for numerous research projects in the African context. It is employed in various themes, including employment and labor, social security, enterprise, security, health, urbanity, and social protection. From one discipline to another, the reference to informality does not take on the same meaning.

Initially, informality was used to designate a so-called informal sector and qualify a broad category of economic activities that only partially conform to state legislation. Since Keith Hart's report on the informal sector in Ghana in 1972, the notion started to be promoted by the International Labour Organization (ILO). The concept has since continuously evolved under the influence of other disciplines: work on informal employment and formal and informal norms in connection with institutional approaches (e.g., the diversity of property rights systems and their impact on investment, returns, etc.). The dividing line between the formal and informal sectors often remains porous and complex. Arrangements may, on the contrary, demonstrate their complementarity when formal enterprises may resort to informal employment, meaning employment without a labor contract.

Informality is not confined to these meanings. In certain contexts, the reference to informality does not target economic activities, but more broadly the relationships with state regulations. Informality may initially refer to the ways in which actors informally adapt to rules, frameworks, or institutions in their activities. For example, in land matters, it could refer to the use of "small papers" to cope with difficulties in obtaining a land title. Nonetheless, informality can also refer to normative phenomena that compete with the state. Informal justice, for example, distinguishes traditional or customary forms of justice alongside state justice. Conversely, informality can refer to situations that violate regulations. This is the case with the informal medicine market in West Africa.

Beyond its epistemological scope, the notion serves as a reference for numerous policies. For example, the International Labour Organization's Recommendation No. 204 on the transition from the informal to the formal economy in 2015 aims to promote the implementation of policies fostering the transition from the informal to the formal economy. The promotion of such policies relies on these specific conceptions of informality.

Integrated activities

This axis is articulated around two types of complementary activities: the initiation of specific research projects aimed at difficult cases challenging social equity in the context of informality and the establishment of coordinated activities to develop cross-methodological approaches to informality.

1) Specific projects

From 2002 to 2024, 5 projects were started. The variety of subjects allowed an interdisciplinary examination of social equity in the context of informality from various perspectives:

• Solidarity: A project to compare social protection systems in Africa with the aim to establish a comparative framework of social protection systems at the national and local levels. The originality of the project lies in integrating locally mobilized forms of informal solidarity competing with state systems into the study of social security systems. The project was supported by an IPORA seed funding and was further strengthened by support to a post-doctorate fellow.
• Labor: A project to examine the role of labor inspection in the transition from informality to formality. It aims to better understand the role of labor inspectors in informal economic activities and, at the same time, test the robustness of the category "informality" through the observation of labor inspection activities.
• Enterprise: A project undertaken to probe how the interactions of legal and social norms shape and condition the behaviors of informal entrepreneurs and the performance of their enterprises. Among these behaviors, investment is central.
• Housing: A study that seeks to produce research results that can be used to improve the spatial justice and equity of social housing projects and to halt the proliferation of informal settlements. The project supports the completion of a doctoral thesis.
• Water: A study that examines what appears to be a growing inequality of access to water in Addis Ababa using a multidisciplinary approach

2) Coordinated interdisciplinary activities

The coordination of these projects leads to a critical reflection on the category of informality, combining analytical frameworks of social equity in the context of informality. Three subjects contributed specifically to this reflection. Projects 1, 2, and 3 developed a common questionnaire. Funding was granted to develop for an anthropological documentary on informality situations in employment, solidarity, and enterprise based on the research of projects 1, 2, and 3. A common and interdisciplinary seminar allowed for the confrontation of methodological approaches.

Academic Validation

IPORA enabled the creation of an interdisciplinary research team addressing social equity issues in the context of informality. IPORA's financial support and the establishment of a research network allowed for fundamental reflection on the notion of informality. It currently supports two doctorates, one post-doctorate fellows, and an application to a competitive call at the French National Research Agency (ANR).