Dossier Popular Economies in Latin America: challenges, contributions and experiences beyond informality

Abstract

Studies on economic relations in Anthropology are highly recognized: Mauss (1925), Godelier (1978), Sahlins (1992) and Polanyi (1976) are some of the "classic" references on the subject, their works address reciprocity, gift relations (give-receive-return), appreciation and criticism of classical economic theories (substantivist versus formalist) in understanding the economic relations of our societies. Works such as Tassi et al. (2013) and Juliane Müller (2015, 2018, 2020) demonstrate the insufficiency of theories of informality and neoclassical economics to understand the experiences of popular and/or indigenous economies in Latin America. Both Andean authors show that the popular economy sector is made up of people who were marginalized by the economic elites (who have specific racial, ethnic and class characteristics) and by the formal policies of the State and who, despite the process of marginalization, knew how to build economic networks, creative relationships, in addition to the deficiencies present in the self-employed condition. Thus, the objective of this dossier was to give visibility to these economic experiences of the peoples and popular economies of Latin America and to understand the challenges and contributions that these economies bring to the debate in Economic Anthropology, beyond the meanings proposed by economic theories of informality, marginality and survival/subsistence.