Scholars in economics and sociology, where most of the theorizing of informality has occurred, will benefit from an analysis which looks beyond the social and economic aspects of informality on which they typically concentrate. Her analysis contributes to the border studies literature, particularly because it assesses informality and politics in the comparative contaxt of both El Paso and Ju rez. Yet its findings have important implications not just for the Mexican interior, where informality is prevalent and well-documented, but for the rest of the United States, where many of the documented processes are no doubt occuring as a global restructuring runs its course. For this reason, the book is a model for parallel studies in other non-border contexts. In the aspiring global cities of Ciudad Ju rez and El Paso, people generate income and devlop their housing informally on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Residents counter national and international influences to build shelter and incomes, albeit meager.
But the political machinery of both the U.S. and Mexico constrains the ability of these quintessential free traders to build political communities and organize around self-sufficient work and housing in visible ways. Experiences at the border, along a central gateway for capital, job, and labor movement, offer insights to readers as the globalized economy spreads and engulfs the heartlands of both the U.S. and Mexico. People's everyday victories in countering petty regulations can resist or feed the grand global hegemonies. Informal Economies at the U.S.-Mexico Border is published by Temple University Press , Philadelphia 19122.