Survival Economies

Black informality in Chicago

Nik Theodore, University of Illinois at Chicago. Forward by Richard Wallace, Equity and Transformation

Nik Theodore is a Professor in the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)’s Department of Urban Planning and Policy. His work focuses on economic restructuring, labor standards, and worker organizing. Richard Wallace is the founder and director of Equity and Transformation (EAT), an organization which fights for social and economic equity for Black workers in informal work and those who have been formerly incarcerated.

EAT was founded in 2018 by post-incarcerated Black people from Chicago, in an effort to uplift the voices and power of Black informal workers in the US. The mission of EAT is to build social and economic equity for Black workers engaged in the informal economy.

Survival Economies is an important report that explores the ways many Black informal workers in Chicago get by from day to day. Excluded from the benefits and protections of traditional employment, they rely on informal activities, like selling loose cigarettes or offering informal childcare, for income.

Expanding protections for all requires finding solutions that will work for those who are most excluded from the current safety net, like the Black, informal workers who make up the membership of Equity and Transformation (EAT) Chicago, whose work and lives are documented in this report.

EAT was founded in 2018 by post-incarcerated Black people from Chicago, in an effort to uplift the voices and power of Black informal workers in the US. The mission of EAT is to build social and economic equity for Black workers engaged in the informal economy.

Learn more about EAT Chicago’s important work here.