Informalisation as a Strength: Community Survival Systems and Economic Development in the African City

Informalisation as a Strength: Community Survival Systems and Economic Development in the African City PDF Author: Frank Meintjies
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1599426641
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

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Book Description
This dissertation is concerned with resources for economic development in cities in Africa. It argues for the greater understanding of the dynamics, practices and cultures within popular neighbourhoods and for recognising the creativity within them as a critical resource. Such an appeal is apt in a context where informal initiative has been suppressed, neglected and its potential wider influence curtailed. This paper takes the view that the popular neighbourhood is not just a place of needs, nor are its resources important only for addressing its own pressing issues; rather, it can be a major contributor to economic development in cities of Africa. This argument draws on concepts and findings from two research initiatives on a Lusaka settlement which delved into community resourcefulness, during a time of consolidation and at a time of serious economic stress. The main proposition is that economic strategy formulation in African cities needs to be based on a good grasp of the constraints and creativity of popular neighbourhoods and the survival strategies they spawn.

Informalisation as a Strength: Community Survival Systems and Economic Development in the African City

Informalisation as a Strength: Community Survival Systems and Economic Development in the African City PDF Author: Frank Meintjies
Publisher: Universal-Publishers
ISBN: 1599426641
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 76

Get Book Here

Book Description
This dissertation is concerned with resources for economic development in cities in Africa. It argues for the greater understanding of the dynamics, practices and cultures within popular neighbourhoods and for recognising the creativity within them as a critical resource. Such an appeal is apt in a context where informal initiative has been suppressed, neglected and its potential wider influence curtailed. This paper takes the view that the popular neighbourhood is not just a place of needs, nor are its resources important only for addressing its own pressing issues; rather, it can be a major contributor to economic development in cities of Africa. This argument draws on concepts and findings from two research initiatives on a Lusaka settlement which delved into community resourcefulness, during a time of consolidation and at a time of serious economic stress. The main proposition is that economic strategy formulation in African cities needs to be based on a good grasp of the constraints and creativity of popular neighbourhoods and the survival strategies they spawn.

Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa

Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa PDF Author: Mary Njeri Kinyanjui
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1780326335
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
In this highly original work, Mary Njeri Kinyanjui explores the trajectory of women's movement from the margins of urbanization into the centres of business activities in Nairobi and its accompanying implications for urban planning. While women in much of Africa have struggled to gain urban citizenship and continue to be weighed down by poor education, low income and confinement to domestic responsibilities due to patriarchic norms, a new form of urban dynamism - partly informed by the informal economy - is now enabling them to manage poverty, create jobs and link to the circuits of capital and labour. Relying on social ties, reciprocity, sharing and collaboration, women's informal 'solidarity entrepreneurialism' is taking them away from the margins of business activity and catapulting them into the centre. Bringing together key issues of gender, economic informality and urban planning in Africa, Kinyanjui demonstrates that women have become a critical factor in the making of a postcolonial city.

Decent Work and the Informal Economy

Decent Work and the Informal Economy PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Economic development
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
Describes the informal economy and highlights its decent work deficit. Proposes an integrated strategy to address underlying causes of informality and to promote decent work in all sectors of the economy, from formal to informal.

Africa's Informal Workers

Africa's Informal Workers PDF Author: Ilda Lindell
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138334
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Africa's Informal Workers is a vigorous examination of the informalization and casualization of work, which is changing livelihoods in Africa and beyond. Gathering cases from nine countries and cities across sub-Saharan Africa, and from a range of sectors, this volume goes beyond the usual focus on household ‘coping strategies’ and individual agency, addressing the growing number of collective organizations through which informal workers make themselves visible and articulate their demands and interests. The emerging picture is that of a highly diverse landscape of organized actors, providing grounds for tension but also opportunities for alliance. The collection examines attempts at organizing across the formal-informal work spheres, and explores the novel trend of transnational organizing by informal workers. Part of the ground-breaking Africa Now series, Africa’s Informal Workers is a timely exploration of deep, ongoing economic, political and social transformations.

Identity Economics

Identity Economics PDF Author: Kate Meagher
Publisher: African Books Collective
ISBN: 978081373X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 254

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Book Description
This title traces the rise of two dynamic informal enterprise clusters in Nigeria and explores their slide into trajectories of Pentecostalism, poverty and violent vigilantism.

Changing the Rules

Changing the Rules PDF Author: Aili Mari Tripp
Publisher: Univ of California Press
ISBN: 0520327438
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1997.

African Conflicts and Informal Power

African Conflicts and Informal Power PDF Author: Mats Utas
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138857
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 442

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Book Description
In the aftermath of an armed conflict in Africa, the international community both produces and demands from local partners a variety of blueprints for reconstructing state and society. The aim is to re-formalize the state after what is viewed as a period of fragmentation. In reality, African economies and polities are very much informal in character, with informal actors, including so-called Big Men, often using their positions in the formal structure as a means to reach their own goals. Through a variety of in-depth case studies, including the DRC, Sierra Leone and Liberia, this comprehensive volume shows how important informal political and economic networks are in many of the continent’s conflict areas. Moreover, it demonstrates that without a proper understanding of the impact of these networks, attempts to formalize African states, particularly those emerging from wars, will be in vain.

Reconsidering Informality

Reconsidering Informality PDF Author: Karen Tranberg Hansen
Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute
ISBN: 9789171065186
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 240

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Book Description
This book brings together two bodies of research on urban Africa that have tended to be separate, studies of urban land use and housing and studies of work and livelihoods. Africa's future will be increasingly urban, and the inherited legal, institutional and financial arrangements for managing urban development are inadequate. Access to employment, shelter and services is precarious for most urban residents. The result is the phenomenal growth of the informal city. Extra-legal housing and unregistered economic activities proliferate and basic urban services are increasingly provided informally. Recent decades of neo-liberal political and economic reforms have increased social inequality across urban space. After an introductory chapter by the editors, the contributions are grouped into the following sections: - LOCALITY, PLACE, AND SPACE - ECONOMY, WORK, AND LIVELIHOODS - LAND, HOUSING, AND PLANNING The case studies are drawn from a diverse set of cities on the African continent. A central theme is how practices that from an official standpoint are illegal or extra-legal do not only work but are considered legitimate by the actors concerned. Another is how the informal city is not exclusively the domain of the poor, but also provides shelter and livelihoods for better-off segments of the urban population.

Gender Equality at the Heart of Decent Work

Gender Equality at the Heart of Decent Work PDF Author: International Labour Office
Publisher: International Labour Organization
ISBN: 9789221206545
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 266

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Book Description
This report has three aims: reviewing the ILO's progress in assisting constituents to achieve gender equality in the world of work; highlighting its current efforts to implement International Labour Conference (ILC) resolutions and Governing Body decisions on promoting gender equality and mainstreaming it in the Decent Work Agenda; and providing background for constituents to chart a strategic course for future work.

Post-conflict Economic Recovery

Post-conflict Economic Recovery PDF Author: John F. E. Ohiorhenuan
Publisher: United Nations Development Programme
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 270

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Book Description
The UNDP Crisis Prevention and Recovery Report 2008 titled Post-Conflict Economic Recovery: Enabling Local Ingenuity, is a comprehensive analysis focusing on three critical factors: the importance of local ingenuity to guide recovery, the state s role in promoting this ingenuity, and the policies needed to rebuild battered economies and reduce the risk of conflict recurrence. The study cites examples of countries that have succeeded in rekindling post-conflict economies and those that continue to flounder, discussing the foundations that are so vital to foster post-conflict economic recovery.