Note: Paid informal work in deprived urban neighborhoods: Exploitative employment or cooperative self-help?

The aim of this paper is to challenge the characterization of paid informal work as a form of employment based on exploitative relations that should b e eradicated. Using empirical evidence gathered through structured intervie ws with 511 households in deprived and affluent neighborhoods in British ci ties, this paper reveals that paid informal work in deprived areas is mostl y conducted for kin, neighbors, and friends for co-operative reasons and is thus more like unpaid community exchange in the private sphere than exploi tative employment. In consequence, the challenge for social and labor marke t policy is argued to be not to try to eradicate such work but to harness i t in these deprived urban neighborhoods.