Informal work: an analysis of the production of the last 10 years in Brazil

Abstract

According to the Institute of Applied Economic Research (IPEA), informal work, although prior to the 1990s, has its consolidation in the Brazilian economy as one of the side effects of the Real Plan. The objective of this study is to carry out a review of the national literature on informal work. Studies on informal work in national databases that include Brazilian scientific journals classified as A1, A2, B1 and B2 in the areas of Social Sciences, Human Sciences and Health Sciences published between 2008 and 2017 were reviewed. It could be observed that the study of informal work remained constant over the years, with a total of 14 (fourteen) articles between 2008 and 2010, 13 (thirteen) articles between 2011 and 2013 and 16 (sixteen) other articles between 2014 and 2017. Regarding the methodological approach, the research shows that, in the articles analyzed, the qualitative approach, working with values, beliefs, representations, habits, attitudes and opinions, useful to understand the context in which the phenomenon occurs, was used in 74% of the studies, while the quantitative studies that seek to generate accurate and reliable measures, and measure opinions, attitudes and models capable of predicting behavior represented only 19% of the articles. The cut made for this study showed that only 43 articles, out of a total of 440 previously researched and included in the original database, consisted of studies on the relationship with work among informal workers, noting that this theme in question is underrepresented in Brazilian research work.