During the ‘lost decade’ of the 1980s, informal work and self‐employment emerged as the most prevalent forms of work throughout Latin America. In response to the economic crisis, the majority of Latin American countries adopted a series of sweeping neoliberal reforms designed to open nations to trade and investment, promote export‐led growth, and generate employment, ultimately reducing the incidence of informal work. Despite the widespread adherence to the neoliberal model and implementation of structural adjustment reforms during the past quarter century, informal work has not diminished and in much of Latin America the odds of finding ‘decent work’ are no better today than during the economic crisis of the 1980s. In light of this seeming paradox, this article offers an overview of the recent debates and controversies surrounding informal work in Latin America. Drawing on recent research, as well as reports and policy documents from key international organizations, I pose and attempt to answer four core questions: What counts as informal work? Who works informally in Latin America? Why do men and women throughout Latin America increasingly resort to informal work? What role does informal work play as a livelihood strategy in Latin America and how has this role changed in recent years?

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The previous decade has witnessed an unprecedented expansion and consolidation of supermarket chains on a global scale. Notwithstanding a wealth of recent research on the global expansion of multinational food retailers, the existing literature largely overlooks the transformation of supply networks and resulting impacts on firms, workers and regions in host countries, where international supermarket chains procure the vast majority of food products for local markets. In addition, the bulk of previous research has been carried out in developed nations, ignoring one of the most striking trends of the past decade – the rapid and unfettered expansion of international retailers in developing countries, especially Asia and Latin America. This paper provides an assessment of the impacts of the globalization of retailing on supply-network linkages between food retailers, intermediaries and small-scale agricultural producers in Yucatán, Mexico. In the context of a global production networks (GPN) framework, this case study reveals that the transformation of supply networks, and concomitant implications for small-scale producers, is mediated by locally contingent relationships among national and international food retailers, intermediaries, state government officials, and agricultural and livestock producers, as well as global economic processes. Durante la última década hemos sido testigos a la expansión y consolidación de cadenas de supermercados a una escala global. No obstante los numerosos estudios recientes enfocados en la expansión global de las tiendas de autoservicio, ha pasado casi desapercibido la transformación de las redes de distribución y las consecuencias para las empresas, trabajadores, y regiones en países receptores, donde los supermercados multinacionales surten la gran mayoría de sus productos para los mercados locales. Además, se ha realizado la gran mayoría de los trabajos de investigación anteriores en países desarrollados, sin tomar en cuenta una de las tendencias más sobresalientes de la última década – la proliferación desbordada de las cadenas multinacionales en países en vías de desarrollo, especialmente Asia y América Latina. En este trabajo se analizan los impactos de la globalización entre las tiendas de autoservicio, los intermediarios y los pequeños productores agropecuarios en Yucatán, México. En el contexto del marco conceptual GPN (redes de producción globales), este estudio de caso revela que la transformación de las redes de producción, y las consecuencias para los pequeños productores, surge tanto de las relaciones locales entre las cadenas de autoservicio, los intermediarios, funcionarios del gobierno estatal, y los productores mismos, como de los procesos económicos globales.

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