The nature of the various and diverse linkages that bind informal traders in Peru to the institutional, economic, and social contexts in which they work and live is examined. Ground-level analysis is related to broad-based processes occurring at the national and international scales and the importance of integrating contextual information into broader analytical conceptualizations is stressed. It is argued that informality in Peru must be conceptualized as an historically and culturally rooted process that interacts dynamically with contemporary forces operating at the local, national, and international scales.