Bracing for turmoil: temporalities of livelihood adaptation among informal workers in Facatativá, Colombia

ABSTRACT

This study considers temporal aspects of livelihood adaptation in times of turmoil by drawing on interviews with informal street vendors in Facatativá, Colombia. By engaging a ‘time stories’ perspective, this article aims to provide a better understanding of how livelihood responses to shocks emerge from (and are constrained by) individuals’ initial and changing assumptions about the continued onset of a crisis. We found that livelihood adaptation to shock, in some cases, involves adopting a new livelihood that appears more durable. In other cases, adaptation is temporary with individuals returning to prior livelihoods when conditions allow. Many individuals had limited livelihood options. In such cases adaptation was more precarious generally, implying drastic consumption cuts or relying on neighborly networks. Also, changing one’s livelihood is a high-risk decision for people who are often already struggling to survive in a context of declining overall demand and falling incomes as a crisis hits.

KEYWORDS:

• Latin america
• livelihoods
• lockdown
• pandemic effects
• COVID-19
• adaptation
• decent work

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The contribution of Reidar Staupe-Delgado was funded by the the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 897656