Overview

Using data from local surveys, interviews, and national statistics, this comparative study of two Central American cities similarly positioned in the world economy looks at how people make a living outside the mainstream of economic life, in the ""informal economy,"" what opportunities they have for social mobility, and how state policies affect their life chances.

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9780271020273

Table of Contents

Reviews

From the standpoints of theory, methodology, and data alike, this book is a major contribution to the multidisciplinary fields of international development and comparative urbanization, social stratification, and social policy. It will prove important to academic and policy specialists in these fields as well as quite useful in upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate seminars. [Its empirical analysis is highly competent as well as clear and insightful. It represents an admirable and successful effort to deploy theory and methodology judiciously to illuminate the interplay of state policy and social inequality in Latin America. The conclusions emphasize not only the pernicious general consequences of neoliberal policy but also substantial variation in the degrees and forms of the consequences in the context of distinctive national institutional patterns]. --Richard Tardanico, Florida International University

From the standpoints of theory, methodology, and data alike, this book is a major contribution to the multidisciplinary fields of international development and comparative urbanization, social stratification, and social policy. It will prove important to academic and policy specialists in these fields as well as quite useful in upper-level undergraduate courses and graduate seminars. [Its empirical analysis is highly competent as well as clear and insightful. It represents an admirable and successful effort to deploy theory and methodology judiciously to illuminate the interplay of state policy and social inequality in Latin America. The conclusions emphasize not only the pernicious general consequences of neoliberal policy but also substantial variation in the degrees and forms of the consequences in the context of distinctive national institutional patterns]. Richard Tardanico, Florida International University

Author Information

José Itzigsohn is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brown University. His articles have appeared in Social Forces, Latin American Research Review, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and Ethnic and Racial Studies.

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