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UID:news420@ethnologie.philhist.unibas.ch
DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20250826T140040
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251017T161500
SUMMARY:Is the African Informal Economy Decolonial?
DESCRIPTION:There is a large literature on informal economies in Africa\, a
  continent which remains the most informalized region in the world today
 —with\, in many countries\, 80-90% of people working informally.  Much 
 of this literature\, especially in policy studies\, retains a strong bias 
 against informal modes of work and remains analytically distanced from the
  practices it purports to study. In order to add nuance to this literature
  and address some of its shortcomings\, I have been engaged in an ethnogra
 phic study collecting in-depth data from informal entrepreneurs in two Afr
 ican countries\, Togo and Kenya. This study draws on key themes and debate
 s in the informal literature in designing a project that enables an empiri
 cally-based theorization of burgeoning African informality while paying sp
 ecial attention to vernacular economic understandings and practices.\\r\\n
 While describing some of this study’s findings—which overturn several 
 apple carts in the informal literature and gesture toward the value of a m
 ore qualitative\, anthropological approach—this presentation introduces 
 a decolonial reading of informality and suggests that the persistence and 
 ubiquity of informal work on the continent represents a critique of coloni
 al modernity and an alternative to capitalist labor & accumulation practic
 es. The paper also asks: what is the nature of critique that is unnamed as
  such and originates in a site of everyday practice?
X-ALT-DESC:<p>There is a large literature on informal economies in Africa\,
  a continent which remains the most informalized region in the world today
 —with\, in many countries\, 80-90% of people working informally.&nbsp\; 
 Much of this literature\, especially in policy studies\, retains a strong 
 bias against informal modes of work and remains analytically distanced fro
 m the practices it purports to study. In order to add nuance to this liter
 ature and address some of its shortcomings\, I have been engaged in an eth
 nographic study collecting in-depth data from informal entrepreneurs in tw
 o African countries\, Togo and Kenya. This study draws on key themes and d
 ebates in the informal literature in designing a project that enables an e
 mpirically-based theorization of burgeoning African informality while payi
 ng special attention to vernacular economic understandings and practices.<
 /p>\n<p>While describing some of this study’s findings—which overturn 
 several apple carts in the informal literature and gesture toward the valu
 e of a more qualitative\, anthropological approach—this presentation int
 roduces a decolonial reading of informality and suggests that the persiste
 nce and ubiquity of informal work on the continent represents a critique o
 f colonial modernity and an alternative to capitalist labor &amp\; accumul
 ation practices. The paper also asks: what is the nature of critique that 
 is unnamed as such and originates in a site of everyday practice?</p>
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251017T180000
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