Resistance to Oppression in Informal Work

Abstract This article takes the study of informal work and resistance to oppression in a new direction. The literature assumes that subaltern resistance is either collective, open, and occasional; or individual, covert, and habitual. The author argues that the reality is a complex mix of these responses, shaped by social power structures and legal frameworks. Based on ethnographic fieldwork with paid domestic workers in Brazil, Colombia, and Peru, the author demonstrates that worker resistance is principally individual and multifaceted, including overt and covert, as well as habitual and occasional strategies. In all cases, entrenched racist and patriarchal structures and behaviors as well as the making and implementing of labor law shape social understandings of the nature of remunerated domestic labor and choices of resistance strategies. In this context, collective rights claiming remains challenging.