Problems of Qualitative Research on the Informal Economy

Abstract

Drawing on a comparative analysis of two studies of the informal economy conducted in Detroit and Belgrade, this paper seeks to develop an ideal model for the qualitative investigation of informal economic practices. Particular attention is paid to the duration and organization of fieldwork, the researcher’s entry into the research setting, the process of establishing legitimacy and trust within the community, and the substantive focus of the research. The proposed model advocates prolonged engagement in the field, the gradual legitimation and social embeddedness of the researcher, and a phased approach to the development of research themes. The first phase is devoted to identifying and documenting informal economic practices and the contexts in which they occur. The second shifts the focus towards the socioeconomic conditions and social processes that generate, shape, and sustain participation in the informal economy. Such an approach encompasses not only respondents’ objective economic circumstances – including income and expenditure – but also actual and desired patterns of consumption, perceived and aspired social status, aspirations and orientations towards prestige, ethnosocial understandings of social mobility, and microsocial relations. By incorporating these dimensions, qualitative fieldwork can move beyond the mere estimation of the scale of the informal economy towards an empirically grounded understanding of the social mechanisms underlying it. Even when adapted to the constraints and standards of the scientific community and the wider social environment, a realistically achievable version of the proposed ideal model could generate substantially richer and more analytically meaningful knowledge than approximate quantitative estimates of the extent of the informal economy.