The formal and informal economies are

linked in many ways. Indeed, as Castells and

Portes note, it is precisely because there is a
formal economy-an institutional frame-
work of economic activity-that we can
Unofficial Work speak of an informal one (p. 13). The book
includes many examples of subcontracting,
where large firms that operate according to
volved in creating, expanding, and strength- official rules send production out to smaller,
The Informal Economy. Studies in Advanced ening informal economic arrangements in informal firms as a way to cut costs and
and Less Developed Countries. ALEJANDRO
PORTES, MANUEL CASTELLS, and LAUREN A.
specific contexts. In Bolivia, informal eco- increase flexibility. In Mexico City, Beneria
BENTON, Eds. Johns Hopkins University Press, nomic activities have always been wide- argues that intense competition among
Baltimore, 1989. viii, 327 pp. $39.50; paper, spread among poor families trying to sur- small subcontractors to obtain work from
$16.95. vive, but the shift to a cocaine economy has larger firms gives these large firms an ability
led to their expansion, particularly in the to impose their own terms. Individuals
The informal economy, the editors of this form ofurban underground activities related themselves may switch back and forth be-
collection say, has grown in significance in to marketing of imported contraband tween informal and formal sectors, as Rob-
the last decade. Homework, putting out, goods. In an interesting account of Miami's erts shows in Guadalajara, where participa-
and other informal practices are flourishing informal sectors, Stepick argues that infor- tion in the informal economy depends on
in Third World cities and expanding malization among Haitians and Cubans is the individual's life stage. Low-income men,
linked to ethnic antagonism and the wider for example, typically start out in informal

Downloaded from www.sciencemag.org on November 10, 2015

throughout the industrialized countries. The
Informal Economy offers studies of the struc- society's rejection of immigrants. Denied employment, move on to a formal occupa-
ture and dynamics of this phenomenon that entry into construction unions, Cubans cre- tion, and end their working lives as self-
range over 14 cities and 10 different coun- ated their own non-union firms that relied employed workers. Roberts emphasizes that
tries on several continents, including South on informal practices such as paying workers working-class households combine informal
America, North America, and Europe. The in cash. Haitian refugees, generally unable and formal economic strategies; most have at
essays show that informal economic activi- to find jobs in the formal economy, have least one member in the formal sector-with
ties cut across various social sectors, from survived through casual self-employment in some access to the social security system-as
street peddlers in Bolivia to successful Cu- their own ethnic community, setting up well as others in informal employment.
ban entrepreneurs in Miami to black market small businesses such as dressmaking and In considering the consequences of the
operators in the Soviet Union. restaurants in their homes. Stepick makes informal economy, the book clearly weighs
What is the informal economy? Accord- the point that Cubans' informal activities are in on the negative side. Summing up the
ing to Castells and Portes, in their overview integrated with the broader economy; Cu- empirical results, the editors do note that
chapter, it is "unregulated by the institutions bans work in sectors of the garment, con- there are some positive effects. Homework,
of society, in a legal and social environment struction, and restaurant industries where for instance, allows women to balance in-
in which similar activities are regulated" (p. informal labor practices maintain low labor come earning and household tasks, and in-
12). Most of the book's 14 case studies use costs. The Haitians' informal economic ac- formal enterprises contribute to the viability
definitions that are variations on this theme, tivities, by contrast, are survival strategies of ethnic neighborhoods in some American
though a couple add small scale of produc- that are isolated from the broader economy. cities. There are also a few exceptional in-
tion as a criterion. The role of the state in the creation and stances of "informal economies of
Among the many factors responsible for operation of the informal sector crops up in growth"-the Miami Cuban and central Ita-
the growth of the informal economy in many of the contributions. Sometimes, the ly cases in the book-although these, as the
contemporary societies, Castells and Portes state looks the other way, failing to con- editors argue, are unlikely to be reproduced
suggest, are owners' strategies to assert he- trol-and thereby stimulating the growth elsewhere owing to unique historical and
gemony in the face of the power of organ- of-the informal economy. Fernandez-Kelly cultural features underlying the success sto-
ized labor and the regulation of the econo- and Garcia show that inadequate funding ries. Overall, the informal economy de-
my by the state. Through informalization, for government watchdog agencies and presses wages, worsens other job conditions,
business firms seek to undermine union loopholes in labor legislation have provided and reduces occupational safeguards for
control of the work process and to escape a favorable climate for informalization in workers. And informalization encourages
state legislation and tax increases. Because of Florida and California. In England, the entire industries to resort to exploitative
the growing integration of national econo- Thatcher government's supply-side econom- labor arrangements rather than technologi-
mies in the international system, manufac- ic strategies have aimed to deregulate the cal innovation. Given these negative impli-
turers everywhere compete to produce labor market and encourage the use of tem- cations, the editors call for policy initiatives
cheaper goods by reducing labor costs- porary workers. By 1987, according to that focus on breaking the direct link be-
through lowering wages, avoiding social Standing, a third of the employed were part- tween social benefits and employment in
benefits and payments to the state, and timers, temporary workers, homeworkers, private firms-by government guarantees of
reducing state- or union-imposed con- and "self-employed." In the Soviet Union, minimum living standards to "people as
straints on hiring and dismissal. And the where the state tries to control the workings people and not as workers" (p. 310).
world economic crisis since the mid-1970s of the entire economy tightly and severely The Informal Economy makes clear that the
has driven countless people, especially in the limits private income, people add to their economic arrangements recorded in official
peripheral countries, to eke out a living in the incomes in a variety of illicit ways-for statistics are not the only ones worth study-
only way available: at the "margins of rules example, by charging "rent" for access to ing. Given the importance of the subject, it
and organizational arrangements" (p. 29). scarce socialist-owned goods or services and is a shame that many of the essays are
The case studies show the processes in by plain theft from the state. ponderous and filled with jargon. The find-
9 FEBRUARY I990 BOOK REVIEWS 73I
ings presented, and the editors' reviews and biostratigraphic problems seems unlikely. heavier hand in selecting papers or at least
generalizations, provide a wealth of useful A few papers include paleoecological con- worked to raise all of them to professional
material and raise significant questions that clusions. For example, in explaining the standards. For example, the following bla-
will undoubtedly stimulate future inquiry stratigraphic distribution of track types in tant sarcasm (Agnew et al.) is included:
and cross-national comparisons on the "fun- the Triassic, Demathieu remarks that "the "Field preservation, with the requirements
damental, although elusive, reality" (p. 1) of competition between the two groups of of at least fencing the site and possibly
the informal economy. reptiles must have been relatively great." roofing it as well may just be too expensive
NANcY FONER Competition is a phenomenon that most for busy research scientists to go seeking
Department of Anthropology, ecologists find difficult to detect at any funds. Who can blame them when it is such
State University of New York, taxonomic level. It seems highly unlikely a time-consuming activity to protect a site?"
Purchase, NY 10577 that footprints, identifiable at best to the Such a tirade is entirely irrelevant.
family level, can be useful in addressing the I consider this a useful book, although I
complex issue of competition, and such a do not share the optimism of the editors that
discussion should be dismissed. vertebrate paleoichnology is ready to stand
Paleoichnology Another questionable point is raised by on its own. Recognition of the abundance
the discussion of prints attributed to swim- of vertebrate tracks is a different issue from
Dinosaur Tracks and Traces. DAVID D. GIL- ming sauropods (for example, by Ishigaki). their practical utility for detailed studies. I
LEITE and MARTIN G. LOCKLEY, Eds. Cam- There exist three distinctly different types of encourage those dealing with trace fossils
bridge University Press, New York, 1989. xviii,
454 pp., illus. $54.50. Based on a symposium, trackways of sauropods that are considered and dinosaurs to become familiar with this
Albuquerque, NM, May 1986. to indicate swimming (see Lockley and volume, for it represents the state of the
Conrad's paper for references). Rather than science of fossil footprint studies. I think the
The field of vertebrate paleoichnology is consider these tracks as representing three field has a long road ahead in determining
attempting to come of age, and the matura- different styles of swimming, Lockley and its potentials and limitations. Perhaps the
tion process has been expressed largely in Conrad interpret them as underprints, a most appropriate remark within the book
the form of meetings devoted to new discov- feature created in the subsurface beneath the concerning this field is, "The journey of a
eries. This volume, the result of the First original tracks. This interpretation may be thousand miles begins with a single step"
International Symposium on Dinosaur correct, but the authors continue by stating (Lao Tse, p. 3). That is precisely how this
Tracks and Traces, is a collection of 50 that attribution of the prints to swimming volume should be viewed.
papers of variable quality, devoted to estab- sauropods will contribute to reviving the ANTHONY R. FIOIULLO
lishing vertebrate paleoichnology as a field hypothesis that sauropods were aquatic (p. Section of Vertebrate Fossils,
in its own right. 124). Humans are certainly not aquatic, yet Carnegie Museum of Natural History,
The obvious strength of this volume is in they can leave marks on lake or stream Pittsburgh, PA 15213
providing a single reference source for verte- bottoms when they are in the water. The
brate paleoichnology. A number of papers fact that sauropods may have likewise spent
provide useful overviews of the occurrences time in the water, swimming or otherwise,
of footprints in various parts of the world. does not imply a preferred aquatic mode of Quantum Electrodynamics
Stimulating papers relating functional mor- life. A useful paleoecological point in the
phology to gait are presented (for example, same chapter concerns the distribution of Photons and Atoms. Introduction to Quantum
by Padian and Olsen). Several other papers tracks through various depositional environ- Electrodynamics. CLAUDE COHEN-TANNOUDJI,
provide good descriptive accounts of new ments, drawing attention particularly to the JACQUEs DupoNr-Roc, and GILBERT GRYN-
BERG. Wiley-Interscience, New York, 1989. xx,
track localities or describe old trackways for numerous occurrences of tracks within dune 468 pp. $59.95. Translated from the French
the first time (for example, Farlow et al.). facies. The potential of arid dune environ- edition (Paris, 1987).
The editors emphasize that the study of ments as a source of paleontological infor-
footprints is now ready to move from these mation is beginning to be recognized. Recent years have witnessed a renaissance
more traditional topics and make new con- Several papers deal descriptively with egg- of interest in atomic physics and its interplay
tributions to our understanding of paleo- shells. I am not clear why eggs are consid- with quantum optics. Laser, maser, and
ecology, biostratigraphy, and the behavior ered to be only "traces" of dinosaurs. Eggs synchrotron sources have revolutionized the
of extinct organisms. Reality, however, may with embryos certainly cannot be treated as study of interactions between matter and
argue otherwise. such. If eggs are considered to be traces radiation. More recently, the invention and
The consensus is that footprints cannot be because they are composed of calcium car- perfection of traps for single atoms-hon-
assigned to a taxonomic level finer than bonate rather than apatite as are bones, why ored by the Nobel prize a few months ago-
family. Despite this repeated admission, the should we not consider all of invertebrate have opened the door to stunning experi-
editors in the introduction to the section on paleontology the study of trace fossils? The ments on individual atoms interacting with
biostratigraphy (p. 199) insist that verte- reader is left with the impression that this light. Previously, only large ensembles of
brate tracks hold much promise in this field. book is intended as a bandwagon and the atoms could be dealt with, and a number of
Since most dinosaur families are long-lived, section dealing with eggshells is included to quantum mechanical effects were thus hid-
recognition of tracks at a family level can, at insure the field's popularity. den. The new developments have stimulated
best, provide only a large-scale resolution to Overall the layout of the book is good, a vast amount of research.
stratigraphic questions. For some questions, and there are an acceptably low number of This book, which is a translation of a
resolution no more precise than, for exam- typographical errors, unlisted citations, and French work, presents the theoretical foun-
ple, assignment to the Upper Cretaceous poorly reproduced graphics. It may come as dations for the description of atoms and
may be sufficient. However, the prospect a surprise that so many people were able to radiation and their interplay. The underly-
that a tool limited to such large-scale resolu- contribute to a volume on this subject. The ing theory, quantum electrodynamics, is
tion can make a significant contribution to editors, however, should have exercised a well covered by textbooks, but these text-
732 SCIENCE, VOL. 247