A Forgotten Sector

A sobering account of a disenfranchised American working class and important policy solutions to the nation’s economic inequalities One of the country’s leading scholars on economics and social policy, Isabel Sawhill addresses the enormous divisions in American society—economic, cultural, and political—and what might be done to bridge them. Widening inequality and the loss of jobs to trade and technology has left a significant portion of the American workforce disenfranchised and skeptical of governments and corporations alike. And yet both have a role to play in improving the country for all. Sawhill argues for a policy agenda based on mainstream values, such as family, education, and work. While many have lost faith in government programs designed to help them, there are still trusted institutions on both the local and federal level that can deliver better job opportunities and higher wages to those who have been left behind. At the same time, the private sector needs to reexamine how it trains and rewards employees. This book provides a clear-headed and middle-way path to a better-functioning society in which personal responsibility is honored and inclusive capitalism and more broadly shared growth are once more the norm.

"Although South Africa's informal sector is small compared to other developing countries, it nevertheless provides livelihoods, employment and income for millions of workers and business owners. Almost half of informal-sector workers work in firms with employees. The annual entry of new enterprises is quite high, as is the number of informal enterprises that grow their employment. There is no shortage of entrepreneurship and desire to grow. However, obstacles and constraints cause hardship and failure, pointing to the need for well-designed policies to enable and support the sector, rather than suppress it. The same goes for formalisation. Recognising the informal sector as an integral part of the economy, rather than ignoring it, is a crucial first step towards instituting a 'smart' policy approach. The South African Informal Sector is strongly evidence- and data-driven, with substantial quantitative contributions combined with qualitative findings--suitable for an era of increased pressure for evidence-based policy-making--and utilises several disciplinary perspectives."--

This title was first published in 2001: Does the non-farm sector offer new hope for rural Africa? In the face of economic crisis and restructuring across Africa, small-scale enterprise has come to play a central role in rural livelihood and accumulation strategies. This apparent dynamism has attracted favourable attention from development thinkers and policy-makers, who have identified non-farm enterprise as a new low-cost agent of rural development. The research in this book challenges the growing consensus on the developmental potential of the non-farm sector. On the basis of recent fieldwork, the author argues that the prospects for non-farm led growth have been seriously undermined by the crippling pressures of structural adjustment, agricultural instability and rural as well as interregional inequality. Detailed village case-studies from the populous and highly commercialized grain surplus region of the Nigerian savanna leads the reader to investigate the link between local economic and social realities, and the wider regional, national and global processes that form the development of the non-farm sector in Africa. Far from offering a bargain solution, the author demonstrates that significant investment in agriculture and entrepreneurial development will be needed to create an enabling environment for non-farm growth.

With The Forgotten Front, George H. Cassar intends to demonstrate Italy's vital contribution to the Allied effort in the First World War. His account of the war in Italy covers the strategic considerations as well as the actual fighting.