Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Theresa L. Selfa / The informal sector in India, as in other developing countries, is a source of employment and livelihoods to an overwhelmingly large proportion of workers, both in rural and urban areas. The sector is very heterogeneous and consists of both traditional and modern activities which vary widely across regions and occupations. Although the urban informal sector has been widely studied, not much work has been done on the non-agricultural rural informal sector, which has witnessed significant growth over the last several decades. The present study explores the functioning of the rural informal sector in Bihar, one of the most populous and backward states of India with a high incidence of poverty and low human development indicators. Based on case studies of two sectors – textiles and food processing – and using both quantitative and qualitative data, this study profiles the nature and characteristics of the sectors, and examines the roles of social networks and institutions in its functioning. Drawing from the economic sociology literature, it tries to understand how social networking in the rural labor market can affect economic outcomes. The findings of the study indeed show that it is difficult to explain the functioning of the rural informal sector on the basis of neo-classical economic theory. The research findings illustrate a unique kind of social networking in the rural informal sector arising from caste and religion, which can be associated with the Granovetter’s embededness theory.

Esta dissertação tem como tema o “desemprego oculto pelo desalento", procurando, a partir da análise das histórias de trabalho de pessoas que experimentaram a situação de desemprego por desalento, refletir sobre questões ligadas à cultura do trabalho, à cultura do emprego e ao enraizamento. O trabalho tem como ponto de partida uma breve reflexão sobre as diferentes maneiras de medir o desemprego e segue apresentando e analisando sete trajetórias de trabalho – um homem adulto, duas mulheres adultas e quatro jovens. A análise das trajetórias permite recolher vários elementos que iluminam os valores e as práticas associadas às culturas do trabalho e do emprego, bem como ensinam sobre os limites e as possibilidades de reinvenção das relações com o trabalho quando se tem como referência a vida cotidiana dos indivíduos. Finalmente, conclui-se que o desemprego por desalento pode estar significando sociologicamente a dificuldade experimentada pelos indivíduos para interpretar, na esfera privada, o significado e o sentido das rápidas mudanças que têm lugar no mundo do trabalho. / This dissertation deals with the universe of the “discouraged unemployed", reflecting on the issue of a “culture of work", a “culture of employment" and the question of embededness. The exposition begins with a brief consideration about the different ways of measuring the phenomenon of unemployment and follows on introducing seven histories of work – an adult male, two adult female and four young people. The examination of these histories allows us to collect several elements which serve to illuminate the values and practices that are related to work and employment cultures. Also, they can instruct us about the limits and the possibilities that are given at the present time for us to reinvent the terms with regard to work, having as reference individual’s everyday life. At last, we come to the conclusion that “discouraged unemployed" can mean, in sociological terms, the uneasy experience of understanding – within the private sphere – the sense of all those fast changes that are happening on labor’s world.

Esta dissertação tem como tema o “desemprego oculto pelo desalento”, procurando, a partir da análise das histórias de trabalho de pessoas que experimentaram a situação de desemprego por desalento, refletir sobre questões ligadas à cultura do trabalho, à cultura do emprego e ao enraizamento. O trabalho tem como ponto de partida uma breve reflexão sobre as diferentes maneiras de medir o desemprego e segue apresentando e analisando sete trajetórias de trabalho – um homem adulto, duas mulheres adultas e quatro jovens. A análise das trajetórias permite recolher vários elementos que iluminam os valores e as práticas associadas às culturas do trabalho e do emprego, bem como ensinam sobre os limites e as possibilidades de reinvenção das relações com o trabalho quando se tem como referência a vida cotidiana dos indivíduos. Finalmente, conclui-se que o desemprego por desalento pode estar significando sociologicamente a dificuldade experimentada pelos indivíduos para interpretar, na esfera privada, o significado e o sentido das rápidas mudanças que têm lugar no mundo do trabalho. / This dissertation deals with the universe of the “discouraged unemployed”, reflecting on the issue of a “culture of work”, a “culture of employment” and the question of embededness. The exposition begins with a brief consideration about the different ways of measuring the phenomenon of unemployment and follows on introducing seven histories of work – an adult male, two adult female and four young people. The examination of these histories allows us to collect several elements which serve to illuminate the values and practices that are related to work and employment cultures. Also, they can instruct us about the limits and the possibilities that are given at the present time for us to reinvent the terms with regard to work, having as reference individual’s everyday life. At last, we come to the conclusion that “discouraged unemployed” can mean, in sociological terms, the uneasy experience of understanding – within the private sphere – the sense of all those fast changes that are happening on labor’s world.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T13:53:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 LeonardoQC.pdf: 657702 bytes, checksum: e3ca2527141ad9609b4cdf030e534656 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-08-24 / The current study analyzes the birth and development of two strategic alliances established between shrimp producers in Rio Grande do Norte: the Unipesca and the Coopercam. To achieve this aim, two approaches which, at first sight, could be considered contradictory were used: the Transactional Costs Economy and Embeddedness. The first approach is fundamentally based in the studies of Williamson (1985; 1991; 1996; 1999; 2000; 2002). Embededness, on the other hand, went through the review of a series of authors, such as Burt (1992), Granovetter (1973; 1985), Uzzi (1997), Gulati (1994; 1995; 1997; 1998; 1999; 2000), Nielsen (2005), Ring (2002), Ring and Van de Ven (1994), Zafirovski (2002), among others. To analyze the birth and development of the cooperatives in this study, Gulati s work (1998) was used. This study shows the steps to be studied for a better comprehension of an alliance: the decision of starting an alliance and the choice of the partners, the decision about the governance structure, the evolution of the alliance and the development of the companies which established this partnership. To carry this study out, a study case accordingly to Yin s proposal (2001) was adopted. Semi-structured interviews with pre-defined plots were conducted in two phases: in the beginning of 2006 and in the beginning of 2007. The subjects from the research were, in 2006, representative members of the main associations and corporations, besides the shrimp producers from the state, when the context of the activity was set. In the second phase, in 2007, representative members from the two cooperatives that were listed above were interviewed the president from Coopercam and the marketing manager from Unipesca. Besides these two members, directors from two important organizations in each of these cooperatives were also interviewed, giving out the necessary information for the research. Secondary data was also collected from the Brazilian Association of Crab producers website, as well as from news from important newspapers in RN, such as Tribuna do Norte. The primary data was analyzed in terms of quality, accordingly to the documental analysis technique. Thus, through the data that was collected, it can be concluded that the reasons that motivated the companies to cooperate can be explained in terms of the transactional costs economy. However, the choice of partners is more connected to aspects approached by the social embededness. When aspects related to development and evolution were analyzed, it could be seen that both aspects from TCE and Embededness were vital to explain the development of the cooperatives mentioned / O presente estudo faz uma an?lise sobre a forma??o e o desenvolvimento de duas alian?as estrat?gicas formadas entre produtores de camar?o no Rio Grande do Norte: a Unipesca e a Coopercam. Utilizou-se de duas abordagens que, a princ?pio, poderiam ser consideradas contradit?rias: a Economia dos Custos de Transa??o e a Imers?o Social. A primeira abordagem se baseia fundamentalmente nos estudos de Williamson (1985; 1991; 1996; 1999; 2000; 2002). A Imers?o Social, por sua vez, passou pela revis?o de uma s?rie de autores, tais como Burt (1992), Granovetter (1973; 1985), Uzzi (1997), Gulati (1994; 1995; 1997; 1998; 1999; 2000), Nielsen (2005), Ring (2002), Ring e Van de Ven (1994), Zafirovski (2002), dentre outros. Para a an?lise da forma??o e do desenvolvimento das cooperativas em estudo, utilizou-se o trabalho de Gulati (1998), que aponta os passos a serem estudados para a compreens?o de uma alian?a: a decis?o de entrar e a escolha dos parceiros, a decis?o sobre a estrutura de governan?a, a evolu??o da alian?a e o desempenho das firmas que estabeleceram essa parceria. Para realiza??o do estudo adotou-se o estudo de caso conforme proposi??o de Yin (2001). Foram realizadas entrevistas semi-estruturadas com roteiros pr?-determinados, em duas fases: no in?cio de 2006 e no in?cio de 2007. Os sujeitos da pesquisa foram, em 2006, representantes das principais associa??es e cooperativas, al?m de produtores de camar?o do estado, quando se realizou a contextualiza??o da atividade. Na segunda fase, em 2007, foram entrevistados os representantes das duas cooperativas em quest?o, sendo o presidente, no caso da Coopercam, e o gerente comercial, no caso da Unipesca. Al?m destes, tamb?m foram entrevistados dirigentes de duas organiza??es de grande relev?ncia em cada uma dessas cooperativas, tendo, estes entrevistados fornecido as informa??es necess?rias ? pesquisa. Tamb?m foram coletados dados secund?rios no site da ABCC, al?m de reportagens em jornais de grande circula??o no estado, como Tribuna do Norte. Os dados prim?rios foram analisados segundo a t?cnica de an?lise de conte?do proposta por Bardin (1977). No que se refere aos dados secund?rios, estes foram analisados qualitativamente segundo a t?cnica de an?lise documental (BARDIN, 1977; SILVERMAN, 1995). Assim, atrav?s dos dados coletados, p?de-se concluir que as raz?es que motivaram as firmas a cooperarem passam por quest?es abordadas pela Economia dos Custos de Transa??o. No entanto, a escolha dos parceiros passou muito mais por quest?es abordadas pela imers?o social. Quando analisados quest?es relativas ? evolu??o e o desempenho, verificou-se que aspectos tanto da ECT quanto da Imers?o Social foram centrais para explicar o desenvolvimento das cooperativas em quest?o