Spatial divisions and dimensions of informal forms of work: a case study in the local production system of Thessaloniki - Greece

Abstract

This paper underlies that the study of informal/flexible forms of work must take serious account of the spatial dimension, focusing on the analysis of local labour markets through theoretically informed empirical researches. In this frame, the paper proposes a transnational classification of different regions among advanced economies of Europe and North America, depending on the informal forms of work they incorporate. What follows is a critical evaluation of the Greek city of Thessaloniki, country’s second major town, according to the presented schematic classification and based on the findings of two extensive empirical researches, conducted at the town during 2001-2004. An important conclusion of the study is that, informal forms of work are expanding in a contradictory way, at the recent period. In antithesis to the studies that claim the continuous extension of informal work at the expense of formal/standard wage labour, we underline the explanatory dynamic of the approaches that analyze how different places, regions or sectors, that counteracts with the specific characteristics of their local productive system as well as with the international framework, shape their own socio-spatial patterns of informal work, that may differ considerably from the "central" patterns.