How Africa Works
Occupational change, identity and morality
Occupational change is generally assumed to accompany ‘development’ and to be a necessary part of achieving improved standards of living. But occupational change goes beyond individuals’ economic activities and income-earning to redefine their social identity and contribute fundamentally to the reconfiguration of the ethical foundations of local communities and nation states. The search for alternative, viable livelihoods in times of economic crisis involves age-old occupational pursuits and work hierarchies eroding and new occupational identities and ethics coalescing. Social trust is put to the test as novel work situations and mobility patterns emerge. How Africa Works identifies the influence of changing work modes on the moral economy and social dynamics of the continent. Probing how occupational change alters identity and moulds consensus towards a new social morality, this book challenges the view that development is secured through a market or alternatively a state-led path. Case studies reveal a wealth of insights into the interaction between states, markets, communities and households, and illustrate how material reality and ethical values transform in unexpected ways. This book is important reading for students, academics and policy makers working on Africa.
Published: 2010
Pages: 310
eBook: 9781780440248
Paperback: 9781853396915
Section I: Introduction | |||
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1. Africa at work: transforming occupational identity and morality | |||
Deborah Fahy Bryceson | |||
Section II: New Occupational Mobility and Forms of Exchange in Globalizing Economies | |||
2. From farmers to traders: shifting identities in rural Igbo society, Nigeria | |||
Barth Chukwuezi and Dmitri van den Bersselaar | |||
3. Does trust travel? Horticultural trade in Kenya | |||
Tjalling Dijkstra | |||
4. Calculated chaos or cooperation? Informal financial markets in Kinshasa | |||
Mindanda Mohogu | |||
5. Linking irregular economies: remaking trans-urban commercial networks through new forms of social collaboration | |||
Abdou Maliq Simone | |||
6. Social capital or social exclusion? Social networks and informal manufacturing in Nigeria | |||
Kate Meagher | |||
Section III: Changing Work Patterns and Social Dynamics in Households, Communities and Nation-States | |||
7. Body and soul: economic space public morality and social integration of youth in Cameroon | |||
Nantang Jua | |||
8. Between family and market: urban informal workers’ networks and identities in Bissau, Guinea-Bissau | |||
Ilda Lindell | |||
9. Sweet and sour: women working for wages on Tanzania's sugar estates | |||
Marjorie Mbilinyi | |||
Section IV: Occupational Change and Public Policy | |||
10. Shifting out of gear: households, livelihoods and public policy on the south African wild coast | |||
Leslie Bank | |||
11. Fair or foul play: taxation of women entrepreneurs in Cameroon | |||
Margaret Niger-Thomas | |||
12. Occupational change, structural adjustment and trade union identity in Africa: the case of Cameroonian plantation workers | |||
Piet Konings | |||
13. With or against the odds? Professionalization of the labour force in Tanzania | |||
Pekka Seppällä | |||
Section V: Conclusion | |||
14. Between moral economy and civil society: Durkheim revisited | |||
Deborah Fahy Bryceson |
Deborah Bryceson Deborah Bryceson is Reader in Urban Studies, Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow.
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