How Africa Works

by Bryceson, Deborah Fahy

• ISBN13: 9781853396915
• ISBN10: 1853396915
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-30
• Publisher: Practical Action Pub

Summary

Western donor agencies often assume that occupational change must accompany development and to lead to an improved material standard of living. But occupational change affects more than an individual's economic status'it is central to an understanding of his or her social identity and affects the ethical foundations of their communities and nation states. In times of exceptional economic crisis, as age-old occupational pursuits and work hierarchies erode, the search for alternative livelihoods can unleash economic and social experimentation. New occupational identities coalesce; social trust is put to the test in emerging work situations, mobility patterns and social agencies. How Africa Works analyzes the effect on Africa's political future. Rich case studies reveal a wealth of insights on the interaction between the state, market, community and household as sub-Saharan Africa's economy is transformed. This book asks the question: how does occupationality change identity and help build consensus around a new social morality? This book is important reading for academics and students of development studies and for policy makers.

Author Biography

Deborah Fahy Bryceson is Reader in Urban Studies, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow, UK and Principal of The Policy Practice.

Table of Contents

Figures	p. vii
Tables	p. viii
Acknowledgments	p. ix
Introduction
Africa at work: transforming occupational identity and morality	p. 3
New Occupational Mobility and Forms of Exchange in Globalizing Economies
From farmers to traders: shifting identities in rural Igbo society, Nigeria	p. 29
Does trust travel? Horticultural trade in Kenya	p. 47
Calculated chaos or cooperation? Informal financial markets in Kinshasa	p. 67
Linking irregular economies: remaking trans-urban commercial networks through new forms of social collaboration	p. 87
Social capital or social exclusion? Social networks and informal manufacturing in Nigeria	p. 105
Changing Work Patterns and Social Dynamics in Households, Communities and Nation-States
Body and soul: economic space, public morality and social integration of youth in Cameroon	p. 129
Between family and market: urban informal workers' networks and identities in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau	p. 149
Sweet and sour: women working for wages on Tanzania's sugar estates	p. 165
Occupational Change and Public Policy
Shifting out of gear: households, livelihoods and public policy on the South African Wild Coast	p. 187
Fair or foul play: taxation of women entrepreneurs in Cameroon	p. 209
Occupational change, structural adjustment and trade union identity in Africa: the case of Cameroonian plantation workers	p. 229
With or against the odds? Professionalization of the labour force in Tanzania	p. 245
Conclusion
Between moral economy and civil society: Durkheim revisited	p. 265
Index	p. 289
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