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- Convenor:
-
Graeme Young
(University of Glasgow)
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- Formats:
- Papers Synchronous
- Stream:
- Global inequalities
- Sessions:
- Friday 2 July, -
Time zone: Europe/London
Short Abstract:
This panel will explore how informal economies in cities in the Global South are governed; how different forms of governance might reinforce or transform power structures, exacerbate or address marginalization and impede or promote inclusive development; and what inclusive governance might entail.
Long Abstract:
Unsettling development demands an engagement with questions of power, marginalization and possibilities for inclusion. This panel will explore these by focusing on the governance of urban informal economies in the Global South. Presenters will be encouraged to address one or more of the following questions:
1. How can interdisciplinary approaches to the governance of informality provide critical insights into its evolution, its dynamics and possibilities for change?
2. How are the forms of exclusion that exist in the informal economy connected to power dynamics and other forms of marginalization surrounding class, gender, racial/ethnic identity, religion, migration, age and/or (dis)ability? How does governance reinforce, seek to address or neglect these dynamics and forms of marginalization?
3. What can the governance of informality reveal about state power; strategies of political control; forms of political competition, contestation and negotiation; representation; and the role of institutions in development?
4. What roles can different actors, including associations, unions, cooperatives, civil society groups and other organizations, play in governance and/or promoting inclusion?
5. How does informal economic activity facilitate, restrict or otherwise interact with strategies of accumulation and dispossession? How are these strategies connected to governance?
6. How does the governance of informal economies change during periods of crisis, including the COVID-19 pandemic, and what implications does this have for individuals who engage in informal economic activity?
7. What would the inclusive governance of informal economies entail in theory and practice, either in specific contexts or more generally? How could this be realized?
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Friday 2 July, 2021, -Paper short abstract:
This paper compares differences in party patronage and coercion at two designated markets in Harare, Zimbabwe. One market is functioning as a ruling party cell, while the city council had relatively more control at a newer market nearby. Patterns changed as the result of factionalism and Covid-19.
Paper long abstract:
The informal economy in many African cities is a major economic source for political actors, both state and non-state. Based on qualitative research at Mupedzanhamo and Coca Cola markets in Harare, between 2018 and 2021, this paper analyses the politics of designated second-hand clothes markets, which have developed as sites for contestation between the MDC-A dominated city council and elements in the ruling party, ZANU-PF. The paper compares differences in party patronage and coercion at two designated markets in Harare, Zimbabwe. One market is functioning as a ruling party cell, while the city council had relatively more control at a newer market nearby. Patterns changed as the result of factionalism and Covid-19. It will demonstrate how the covid-19 crisis provided an opportunity for the city council and partisan actors to reposition themselves, with some ascertaining and others losing influence. The study contributes to debates on urban dominance in repressive regime settings, by showing how partisan patronage works at markets, and by showing how moments of crisis reconfigure power dynamics among competing political actors.
Paper short abstract:
In Papua New Guinea, women engage in informal economies and face safety and security challenges. This paper reports on focus group discussion and interviews to explore women vendors’ roles to achieve safety and security outcomes at Awagasi market in Lae city, Papua New Guinea.
Paper long abstract:
Urban informal economies support the livelihoods of the majority of the urban population in most developing countries. People who engage in the urban informal economies are often marginalized members of the urban spaces. In Papua New Guinea, women and girls face particular challenges to make ends meet, including challenges of safety and security.
This paper reports on focus group discussion and interviews, which explore experiences of women community leaders and women market vendors of an urban informal settlement and Awagasi market in Lae city, Papua New Guinea. They shared their experiences on how they become responsible and take ownership of their communities and create strategies to address law and order issues in the community.
Due to the limited capacity of formal law enforcing entities, people at Awagasi market formed a governance committee called the mediation committee. This committee is made up leaders representing each informal settlement including women leaders. Despite facing many challenges, the research participants shared positive outcomes such as continuous progression of their market, their involvement in the community’s leadership structure, recognition of their leadership roles as the result of the locally driven initiatives to achieve peace and security outcomes. This paper demonstrates the significant role women play in contributing to governance in the informal market spaces and their mediation and conflict resolution strategies based on local values and systems.
Paper short abstract:
Despite widespread speculations of a disastrous effect of Covid-19 in the urban informal settlements, the case rate was very low in the largest slum of Bangladesh. An ethnography reveals an informal pandemic response by the slum dwellers demonstrating the community governance from below.
Paper long abstract:
It was argued that COVID-19 crisis is likely to have disproportionately damaging effects on slum dwellers compared to other urban residents, particularly those in low- and middle-income countries due to the higher transmissibility of the disease and higher case fatalities given the precarious living and livelihood conditions. However, though COVID-19 cases and deaths in different clusters of Bangladesh was increasing rapidly throughout 2020, surprisingly very few cases were reported in the slums. Bangladeshi media coverage also portrayed slum dwellers as potential sources of the disease for the entire city because of their ignorance and non-compliance to the health directives and indifference to the pandemic. Nevertheless, a systematic COVID test in the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh found lower infection rate than other sites of the city. While the epidemiological puzzle of the low incidence of COVID-19 in slum remains unresolved, an ethnography in the largest informal settlement in Bangladesh reveals how in the context of indifference from the state the slum dwellers themselves initiated a number of robust medical and non-medical measures to tackle the pandemic. Whether the interventions taken by the slum dwellers made any impact on COVID-19 is beyond the scope and interest of the ethnography. This ethnography rather reveals how through informal and adaptive response to a crisis the slum dwellers demonstrate collective agency and the power of community governance from below. We understand these community initiatives by urban poor as what Bayat (2013) calls ‘Quiet encroachment’ or ‘Non-Movement, referring to the collective actions of noncollective actors.