Africa's informal workers : Collective agency, alliances and transnational organizing in urban Africa

Abstract

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.

<p>CONTENTS: -- Introduction: the changing politics of informality – collective organizing, alliances and scales of engagement / Ilda Lindell -- PART ONE The political dynamics of collective organizing -- 1. Seen but not heard: urban voice and citizenship for street traders / Alison Brown and Michal Lyon -- 2. The politics of vulnerability: exit, voice and capture in three Nigerian informal manufacturing clusters / Kate Meagher -- 3. Women leaders and the sense of power: clientelism and citizenship at the Dantokpa market in Cotonou, Benin / Ebbe Prag -- PART TWO Constructing alliances: organizing across the formal–informal 'divide' -- 4. Alliances across the formal–informal divide: South African debates and Nigerian experiences / Gunilla Andrae and Björn Beckman -- 5. Self-organized informal workers and trade union initiatives in Malawi: organizing the informal economy / Ignasio Malizani Jimu -- 6. Moments of resistance: the struggle against informalization in Cape Town / David Christoffer Jordhus-Lier -- 7. The possibilities for collective organization of informal port workers in Tema, Ghana / Suzanne Scheld -- 9. Passport, please: the cross-border traders association in Zambia / Wilma S. Nchito and Karen Tranberg Hansen -- 10. Informal workers in Kenya and transnational organizing: networking and leveraging resources / Winnie V. Mitullah</p>