Beyond the formal–informal divide: occupational relationships and territorial mobility chains in Vietnam’s labor market

Globalization has not diffused formal employment through the wage relationship. Across the Global South, growth has multiplied informal and hybrid forms of work that sustain accumulation beyond the boundaries of formality. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork (2021–2023) in Kiên Giang Province, southern Vietnam, this paper introduces two analytical tools – Occupational Relationship (OR) and Territorial Mobility Chain (TMC) – to capture how labour is organized and engaged under these conditions. OR extends the classical wage relationship to include independent work, family work, and network-based cooperation, revealing the institutional and relational infrastructures that sustain work. TMC traces how workers combine and sequence these statuses across sectors and places, forming mobility chains that link livelihoods to regional transformation. By theorizing from the South, the paper redefines development as a process of structural change driven by relational coordination rather than formalization, showing how everyday labour practices articulate globalization from below.