Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa From the Margins to the Centre

by Njeri Kinyanjui, Mary

• ISBN13: 9781780326306
• ISBN10: 1780326300
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2014-07-03
• Publisher: ZED BOOKS

Summary

In this highly original work, Mary Njeri Kinyanjui explores the trajectory of women's movement from the margins of urbanization into the centers of business activities in Nairobi, Kenya 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 incomes and confinement to domestic responsibilities, a new form of urban dynamism partly informed by the informal economy is now enabling them to manage poverty, create jobs and link women 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.

Author Biography

Mary Njeri Kinyanjui is a senior research fellow at the Institute for Development Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Table of Contents

1. The Making of an African City
2. Economic Informality Nairobi
3. Women in the City
4. Women's Border Crossing and Economic Informality
5. Women's Claim to Livelihood Rights Through Economic Informality
6. Women and Appropriation of Space for Economic Informality
7. Collective Agency and Citizenship in Economic Informality
8. Implications for Urban Planning