This work pursues a new explanatory framework for understanding some of the variance and homogeneity of informal work between cities in the Global South. Rooted in a materialist approach to informality, it seeks to explain the dynamics of informal work in different urban contexts via a novel application of the global division of labour, termed the global division of urban informal labour. Through a comparative analysis of the urban labour regimes of Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Mexico City, Mexico, the work argues that each city’s respective location within the global capitalist system largely determines the nature of their informal economies. It posits that a city’s informal labour regime is shaped by whether a city’s economy is predominantly defined by financial, industrial or extractive capital, and explores the ramifications of the financialised economy of Mexico City and the extractivist economy of Freetown for shaping informal work in each city. Such an approach attempts not only to explain urban and labour regime variance but also to highlight the essential and foundational nature of informal work in global capitalism today. It also seeks to aid in the task of recentring capitalism and class considerations into understandings of the internal and external dynamics of Global South cities in general.

中文翻译：

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全球南方城市之间的差异：墨西哥城、弗里敦和城市非正规劳动力的全球分工


这项工作寻求一个新的解释框架来理解全球南方城市之间非正式工作的一些差异和同质性。它植根于对非正规性的唯物主义方法，试图通过全球劳动分工的新颖应用（称为城市非正规劳动的全球分工）来解释不同城市环境中非正规工作的动态。通过对塞拉利昂弗里敦和墨西哥墨西哥城的城市劳工制度的比较分析，该著作认为，每个城市在全球资本主义体系中各自的位置在很大程度上决定了其非正规经济的性质。它假设一个城市的非正规劳动制度取决于该城市的经济是否主要由金融、工业或采掘资本定义，并探讨了墨西哥城的金融化经济和弗里敦的采掘主义经济对塑造每个城市的非正规工作的影响。这种方法不仅试图解释城市和劳工制度的差异，而且还强调当今全球资本主义中非正规工作的本质和基础性。它还寻求帮助完成将资本主义和阶级考虑重新纳入对全球南方城市内部和外部动态的理解中的任务。