The changing structure of petty production in Ecuador

Abstract

This article deals with the extent to which the economic activities of the urban poor in Third World cities will disappear, stagnate or increase as capitalism develops. First, it seeks to develop a theoretical framework which allows us to make sense of the economic changes which are taking place in the cities of the developing world. This is followed by an empirical analysis which shows that while the number of petty manufacturing workshops in key areas of Quito remained remarkably constant over a seven-year period of rapid economic growth, this stagnation was the net result of gross changes in the structure of production whereby production of the means of subsistence declined and production of the means of production increased. In addition, the nature of the latter was modified in terms of the type of work undertaken. The changes which took place varied across the city and were inadvertently affected by government housing policy.