Africa's Informal Workers

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.

Table of Contents

1. The Changing Politics of Informality: Collective Organizing, Alliances and.Scales of Engagement - Ilda Lindell

Part One: The Political Dynamics of Collective Organizing
2. Seen But Not Heard: Urban Voice and.Citizenship for Street Traders - Alison Brown and Michal Lyons
3. The Politics of Vulnerability: Exit, Voice and.Capture in Three Nigerian Informal Manufacturing Clusters - Kate Meagher
4. 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'
5. Alliances Across The Formal-Informal Divide: South African Debates and.Nigerian Experiences - Gunilla Andrae and.Björn Beckman
6. Self-Organized Informal Workers and.Trade Union Initiatives in Malawi: Process, Challenges and Directions of Organizing the Informal Economy - Ignasio Malizani Jimu
7. Moments of Resistance: The Struggle Against Informalization in The City of Cape Town - David Christoffer Jordhus-Lier
8. The Possibilities for Collective Organization of Informal Port Workers in Tema, Ghana - Owusu Boampong

Part Three: International Dimensions of Organizing
9. The 'China Challenge': The Global Dimensions of Activism and the Informal Economy in Dakar, Senegal - Suzanne Scheld
10. Passport Please: The Cross-Border Traders Association in Zambia - Wilma S. Nchito and.Karen Tranberg Hansen

About the Author:

Ilda Lindell is a researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute and an associate professor of human geography at Stockholm University, Sweden. Her current research focuses on collective organizing in urban informal economies in Africa, including links to international movements and relations with other organized actors. She has authored book chapters and journal articles, including in 'Urban Studies', 'Habitat International' and 'Geografiska Annaler' and 'Third World Quarterly'. She has edited a special issue in 'African Studies Quarterly' on ‘Between Exit and Voice: Informality and the Spaces of Popular Agency’. She is also the author of 'Walking the Tight Rope: Informal Livelihoods and Social Networks in a West African City', which deals with processes of informalization and how urban dwellers are dealing with the changes.

The Nordic Africa Institute (Nordiska Afrikainstitutet) is a center for research, documentation and information on modern Africa. Based in Uppsala, Sweden, the Institute is dedicated to providing timely, critical and alternative research and analysis of Africa and to co-operation with African researchers. As a hub and a meeting place for a growing field of research and analysis the Institute strives to put knowledge of African issues within reach for scholars, policy makers, politicians, media, students and the general public. The Institute is financed jointly by the Nordic countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden).