If “the economy” is collapsing, how do people survive?

Written by the Human Economies Working Group at the ASU Global Futures Laboratory

An informal market place near Ellis Bridge on the bank of river Sabarmati. This bazaar takes place every Sunday. Photo by Pranav Gandhi

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the informal ways in which people often self-organize to meet their basic needs in the wake of a disaster. Take, for example, the predicament of the healthcare worker, who must go to work while the pandemic shut down childcare and other support services…