This Research Topic on “standard employment enclaves, precarity and informality” shall help to fill existing gaps and prepare new approaches to explain employment configurations in the Global South. Accordingly, we invite contributions that theoretically and empirically deal with the patterns of labour market segmentation in countries of different regions of the Global South, investigating e.g. the embodiment of standard employment, different forms of precarious work, self-employment and exploring the variety of informal work and economies. Contributions may also distinguish patterns according to economic sectors, considering industry, agriculture, commerce, and services.

Moreover, we invite contributors to systematically develop explanations for the different patterns of segmentation considering the diversity of historical backgrounds and economic contexts in the Global South. In this context, we would like to give a stronger focus on labour law and its triggering, reinforcing or mediating role on labour market segmentation in the Global South. We therefore welcome both contributions – in comparative perspective – that explain major reforms towards de- or re-regulation, respectively the development of labour law in a historical perspective and contributions that may focus on particular types of legal regulation and its impact on patterns of labour market segmentation and process of precarization, formalization and (re) informalization.