Book Review Africa’s Informal Workers: Collective Agency, Alliances and Transnational Organising in Urban Africa

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Between exit and voice : informality and the spaces of popular agency : special issue

Ilda Lindell is the guest editor of this special issue

Transnational Activism Networks and Gendered Gatekeeping : Negotiating Gender in an African Association of Informal Workers

The last decade has witnessed the rise of a great number of transnational social movements and activist networks. While many of these movements have been initiated in the North, some are driven by people from the Global South with the aim of addressing various forms of destitution and asserting a variety of basic economic and cultural rights. Such transnational organizing is increasingly evident in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some of these initiatives relate particularly to the growing numbers ofpeople depending on forms of informal work for survival. This edition of Current African Issues looks into the transnationalization of a local association of informal workers as it becomes involved in an international network of grassroots organizations. While this transnational engagement opens up new political possibilities, it also poses new challenges. Participation in international activities is highly unequal and mediated rather than direct, as influential actors engage in practices of gate-keeping that tend to work to the disadvantage of women. Tensions also emerged as a result of the divergent gender ideologies espoused by different participants. The paper draws on various theoretical perspectives on spatial politics in the global age to interrogate the unequal and contested spatialities of this transnational activism. Feminist scholarship sheds further light on the gendering processes at work in the transnationalization of a grassroots association

Street Work: Dynamics and Trajectories of Collective Organizing

Street workers may engage in multiple forms of agency. This paper conceives of such forms in terms of a continuum where some forms may evolve into others, dissolve or revert to previous ones. Closer attention is given to the dynamics and trajectories of street workers’ organizations, which vary widely and are poorly understood. In particular, the paper addresses the prospects for and limitations of transformative and sustained collective organization among street workers. Both external and internal processes influencing the dynamics of street workers’ organizations are examined, such as the economic and political context of associations, the nature of their relations with political elites, the governing powers of associations, the nature of their leadership, and who they represent and exclude. This paper enquires into what accounts for demobilization, regression and political disengagement. It also explores whether participation in wider associative networks and collaborations can help overcome some of the fragilities of street workers’ associations, promote their sustainability and broaden their visions. The discussion draws upon literature addressing collective organizing among street workers in a wide range of urban contexts in Africa and the global South

Walking the tight rope : Informal livelihoods and social networks in a West African city

Trends towards ‘informalization’ are looming large in the world today. African cities have long been characterised by the presence of an ‘informal sector’ but are now experiencing new waves of ‘informalization’. Policies of liberalisation and structural adjustment are both changing the conditions under which urban dwellers make a living and encouraging states to abdicate from responsibilities for popular welfare. In this context, urbanites increasingly rely on informal ways of income earning and of social security provisioning. This book is about processes of ‘informalization’ in the West African city of Bissau in Guinea-Bissau. It begins with a historical account of the way conditions of informality have evolved through the encounter of locally specific forms of informal relations with colonialism and the socialist era. This is followed by an analysis of how disadvantaged groups who rely on informal ways of provisioning are faring in the context of contemporary changes. The study looks at both the informal income-generating activities and the social networks that urbanites engage in to sustain their income activities and their consumption. It seeks to assess whether these groups are coping with these wider changes or are becoming marginalised from networks of assistance and from activities that provide sufficient incomes. The social relations pervading access to support and livelihood resources as well as the informal rules governing such access are in focus. Forms of regulation in the informal sphere are also discussed.  This thesis won the prize of “Best doctoral thesis in the Social Sciences at Stockholm University in 2001-2002”. Författaren är numera verksam vid Nordiska Afrikainstitutet</p

Visions of urban modernity and the shrinking of public space : challenges for street work in African cities

Making cities inclusive is one of the goals of Agenda 2030, and access to publicspaces is identified as an important sub-goal. However, in urban Africa, access by street vendors and other marginalised groups to public spaces seems to be on the decline. This policy note discusses why this is so, what processes lie behind the decline and what the effects are for groups that depend on public space for survival.This policy note is based on the research project "The demise of the informal city? Economic growth and street work in urban Africa", funded by the Swedish Research Council (grant no 2015-03474). For more information and publications, go to: humangeo.su.se/urbanafrica</p

New City visions and the politics of redevelopment in Dar es Salaam

In the midst of widespread urban deprivation, African governments increasingly give priority to large-scale ultra-modern urban projects, intended to increase national income and propel their urban settlements onto the global stage of ‘world-class’ cities. However, such projects are often in tension with the realities of local residents

After riots: towards a research agenda on the long-term effects of urban unrest

Urban societies are experiencing intensified social frictions which have manifested in a growing occurrence of riots. Urban riots are often treated as ephemeral outbursts which create only short-term or immediate responses by the state or residents. However, this paper aims to move beyond such present-centrism by proposing a research agenda for studying their contextually longer-term legacies. Particular consideration is given to three thematic areas: (a) policy responses, (b) temporalities and urban memory, and (c) feelings and subjectivities. Drawing upon empirical illustrations concerning riots in London (2011) and Stockholm (2013), the paper uncovers variations within and across the two cities, such as differing state and private sector interventions; reshaping of civil society; and how residents variously resist, adapt to, and promote change. The paper thus reflects upon how riots’ afterlives in different urban contexts are constructed, mobilized and contested. Such variations point to the importance of the situated study of urban riots’ diverse legacies

The World Cup 2010 and the urban poor : ‘World class cities’ for all?

South Africa was expecting to benefit by hosting the World Cup 2010. For urban disadvantaged groups, however, the reality proved very different. Street vendors and marketers were among the excluded. Evictions caused many of them to lose their livelihoods, and strict regulations made it difficult for them to derive economic benefit from the mega-event. This Policy Note explores their predicament, as well as the responses of grassroots organizations. Finally, lessons are drawn for cities aspiring to host similar events in the future