Social Contracts and Informal Workers in the Global South

Edited by Laura Alfers, Research Associate, Department of Sociology, Rhodes University, South Africa and Director, Social Protection Programme, WIEGO, UK, Martha Chen, Lecturer of Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University, US and Senior Advisor, WIEGO, UK and Sophie Plagerson, Visiting Associate Professor, Centre for Social Development in Africa, University of Johannesburg, South Africa

• Contents:Introduction: social contracts and informal workers in the global South 1Sophie Plagerson, Laura Alfers and Martha Chen1 Recognition, responsiveness and reciprocity: whatinformal worker leaders expect from the state, the privatesector and themselves 31Sally Roever and Ana Carolina Ogando2 Self-employment and social contracts: from the perspectiveof the informal self-employed 49Martha Chen3 “Dependent Contractor”: towards the recognitions of a newlabor category 73Françoise Carré4 Taxation and the informal sector in the global South:strengthening the social contract without reciprocity? 85Michael Rogan5 Towards a more inclusive social protection: informalworkers and the struggle for a new social contract 106Laura Alfers and Rachel Moussié6 Extended Producer Responsibility: opportunities andchallenges for waste pickers 126Taylor Cass Talbott7 Human rights and transnational social contracts: therecognition and inclusion of homeworkers? 144Marlese von Broembsen8 Informal workers harnessing the power of digital platformsin India 169Salonie Muralidhara Hiriyur9 “Essential and disposable? Or just disposable?” Informalworkers during COVID-19 189Sarah Orleans ReedConclusion: Post-pandemic epilogue – the bad old contract, aneven worse contract or a better social contract for informal workers? 216Laura Alfers, Martha Chen and Sophie PlagersonIndex

‘An original and insightful contribution to rethinking the social contract. Instead of prescribing from above, the authors redirect attention to the perspective of informal workers, to their needs, demands and agency, and to the new realities of informality exposed by COVID-19, digital employment, and new forms of collective action.’