Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy - Softcover

Gill, Kaveri

9780198085508: Of Poverty and Plastic: Scavenging and Scrap Trading Entrepreneurs in India's Urban Informal Economy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0198085508 ISBN 13: 9780198085508

Publisher: OUP India, 2012

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This volume applies the interdisciplinary 'field economics' approach to poverty analysis. The work is based on extensive fieldwork in the pre-urban edge of the sprawling metropolis of Delhi It assesses the economic, social, and political institutions and processes that structure the well-being, agency, and activities of the poor who are waste scavengers and involved with plastic recycling.

Using a mix of survey and ethnographic data, it tells the complete story of how the waste picker at the lowest level of the chain fares in comparison to other kinds of occupational groups engaged in different parts of the scavenging and recycling chain, as well as in other parts of the informal economy. It focuses on the following themes: how occupational choices are dictated by low caste status; how these groups negotiate and surmount market failures and state failures to create a viable informal economy supporting numerous livelihoods and businesses; and how these groups gain or lose from patronage links at the level of the state government and national political parties.

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