Abstract:
This research was done at a time when the issue of urban poverty had been brought back into national consciousness. In early March 2017, thousands of Members of the Kalipunan ng Damayang Mahihirap (Kadamay) occupied idle-government-built houses in Pandi, Bulacan. This demonstration of militant, collective action drew negative responses from many and dismissed the urban poor problem as a personal problem that can be attributed to the lack of hard work and as implied, can be remedied by individual action. The researcher contends that his belief is off the mark. Borrowing from Mills, ―When, in a city of 100,000, only one is unemployed, that is his personal trouble. But when in a nation of 50 million employees, 15 million people are unemployed, that is an issue.‖ With a large percentage of the population being in dire stituations of poverty and couldn‘t find formal employment, we evoke Mills‘ wisdom and become open to the idea that the very structure of employment opportunities could be broken – that we could not hope to find solutions within the range of opportunities of the individual. The extensive related literature of informal work is presented and from which the researchers draws the holistic theoretical framework which incorporates the four dominant schools of thought: the dualist, structuralist, legalist, and voluntarist. The paper aims to apply this framework – questioning what the urban poor think of informality and its effects on their development. The research focused on the urban poor women‘s perspectives on urban informality and poverty, achieved through informal interviews in three urban poor communities in Metro Manila. It is concluded that formal work remains to be preferred by the urban poor over the informal but it is acknowledged that informal work is helpful in providing for the needs of the urban poor‘s everyday existence. A synthesis of the findings allows for recommendations of government policy.
