Informal economy, waste picking and social frame: Reflections on the case of Romanian Roma in Valencia (Spain)

Abstract

This article considers informal waste picking and other informal economic activities carried out by Romanian Roma in Valencia. It has three objectives: to analyse informal waste picking as an informal recycling economy and the strategies and resources used to do it; to grasp the implications of informal waste picking and its social valuation in the situation of the collective; and to understand the main factors that differentiate the situation in Valencia and other western European cities with some cities in the global South which represent more positive experiences for informal waste pickers. Based on a qualitative methodology, with fieldwork carried out between September 2015 and September 2018, our analysis of informal waste picking and its different tasks, carried out through a range of strategies, relationships and social networks, allows us to characterize informal waste picking as an informal economy of recycling, with clear elements of the Latin American concept of the popular economy. However, in Valencia and other Western European cities it does not have the social consideration of work, is stigmatised, and tends to reinforce the social exclusion suffered by the group. This situation contrasts with more positive situations in some cities in the South. While informal waste picking is a global activity, its implications differ, depending on the social framework, the degree of economic formalisation, the presence of the state, and the degree of organization and social embeddedness of informal waste pickers.