Ruptures21, an initiative of The IEL Collective, responds to the challenges posed by old and current economic, social and legal dynamics and their impact on the human and non-human world. Through international interdisciplinary and interinstitutional collaborations, it advances novel ways to understand and address global issues.

Ruptures21 call for a break with set approaches and new ways of acting and being.

Our first arena of study is on the informal economy and public health. In this project – Informality in Times of Covid-19 – we are exploring the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on informal workers, using Colombia as our main case study.

This project brings together a group of socio-legal scholars, labour economists, public health experts, anthropologists, film makers, graphic designers and public policy makers in order to study the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on informal workers and their families. Colombia is a particularly relevant site to conduct this research given that, as Ruptures21 has found out, 61.2% of workers earn their living in the informal economy.

Mixing media and blurring the boundaries between quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and between practice and the academy, outcomes of this project include multilingual policy briefings, life histories, documentaries, online outreach platforms and the first comprehensive data-base of aggregated data on informality in Colombia. Highlighting both the enormous yet often forgotten contribution of informal workers to the general economy of nations and the ultra-precarities they face in moments of public health crises, the outcomes of this project make an urgent call for a new set of new social, economic and health policies in Colombia and similar countries.

You can access the project’s initial Reports and Life Histories in the following links: Report 1 English/Spanish; Report 2 English/Spanish; Life History 1 English/Spanish; Life History 2 English/Spanish. We have also produced the documentary, Informality in Times of Covid-19, in collaboration with the collective ArtoArte. We are pleased to share with you the English version of the documentary below. For the Spanish version of the documentary and the recording of the Informality in Times of Covid-19 project launch, that featured Prof. Ítalo Cardona, the ILO Representative in Colombia, visit The IEL Collective YouTube channel.

Follow the work of Rutures21 and the other products of the Informality in Times of Covid-19 project through the Twitter.

Informality in Covid-19 Times is supported by the University of Kent, the University of Essex, the University of Warwick and Rosario University and has been conducted in alliance with the Observatory for Women’s Equity (ICESI, Colombia), LaboUR, the Research Group on Public Health and Epidemiology (Rosario University) and AlianzaEFI.

Image: F. Maecha, Colombia, Shutterstock (2018)

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Partner institutions:

 

Partner Institutions

Faculty of Economics, Rosario University

Faculty of Medicne and Health Sciences, Rosario University

Faculty of Law, Rosario University

School of Law and Centre for Human Rights, University of Essex

School of Law, University of Kent

School of Law, University of Warwick

Our Team

Project Coordinator:
Luis Eslava (Kent)
Academic & Administrative Director:
Johana Cortés Nieto (Rosario)
Finance Director:
Enrique Prieto Ríos (Rosario)

Public Health & Epidemiology Director:
Leonardo Briceño (Rosario)
Labour Law and Regulation Director:
Iván Daniel Jaramillo (Rosario)

Academic and Research Committee:
Donatella Alesssandrini (Kent)
Carolina Alonso Bejarano (Warwick)
Celine Tan (Warwick)
Tara Van Ho (Essex)
Anil Yilmaz Vastardis (Essex)

Quantitative Group:
Diana Londoño Aguirre
Andrés García Suaza

Qualitative Group:
Angélica Sierra Gaona

Audiovisuals Group:
Clara Viviana Vásquez Franco (Colectivo ArtoArte)
Jesús David Suárez Suárez (Colectivo ArtoArte)

Online Products and Infographs:
Dora Suárez

Translation and Research Support:
Andrés Rodríguez

Alliances:
Grupo de Investigación en Salud Pública
Observatorio para la Equidad de las Mujeres
LaboUR
AlianzaEFI