Short Abstract

The panel seeks to explore the accumulation-inequality nexus and it implications for marginalised communities. It will show how such communities reverse and resist accumulation and marginalisation by engaging in unregulated economic activities.

Long Abstract

This panel proposes to explore diverse social and power relations and implications of the accumulation-inequality nexus for communities that are on the margins of the state in Africa. Sometimes communities respond by engaging in economic activities that fall outside the parameters of regulatory frameworks. Examples that can be cited and are popular across Africa include unregulated mining and fishing, however, we welcome papers that cover any other unregulated economies in Africa. Overall, everyday work and living routines of people in such economies and communities, social and power relations, accumulation, and how these are contested over, escape scholarly attention, yet they have implications for life and livelihoods. This panel will explore the political economy of such communities, particularly the nexus between formal and informal processes and the economic and political imperatives that have shaped them over time. Presenters are expected to provide insightful analyses highlighting different everyday forms of accumulation, extraction and how different communities surviving on the margins of the state in Africa respond to, or counter marginalization by resisting and reversing accumulation that is led by big (formalised) capital, usually with state support. In this way, prospective presenters are expected to use case-studies, drawn from different African countries, to offer nuanced analyses of how the political economy of these communities has evolved, and the new dynamics that have emerged over time.

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