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Remaking Africa’s Informal Economies: Youth, Entrepreneurship and the Promise of Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid

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  • Catherine Dolan
  • Dinah Rajak

Abstract

In recent years, the quest for ‘inclusive markets’ that incorporate Africa’s youth has become a key focus of national and international development efforts, with so-called bottom of the pyramid (BoP) initiatives increasingly seen as a way to draw the continent’s poor into new networks of global capitalism. SSA has become a fertile frontier for such systems, as capital sets its sights on the continents’ vast ‘under-served’ informal economies, harnessing the entrepreneurial mettle of youth to create new markets for a range of products, from solar lanterns and shampoo to cook stoves and sanitary pads. Drawing on ethnographic research with youth entrepreneurs, we trace the processes of individual and collective ‘transformation’ that the mission of (self-) empowerment through entrepreneurship seeks to bring about. We argue that, while such systems are meant to bring those below the poverty line above it, the ‘line’ is reified and reinforced through a range of discursive and strategic practices that actively construct and embed distinctions between the past and the future, valuable and valueless, and the idle and productive in Africa’s informal economies.

Suggested Citation

  • Catherine Dolan & Dinah Rajak, 2016. "Remaking Africa’s Informal Economies: Youth, Entrepreneurship and the Promise of Inclusion at the Bottom of the Pyramid," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(4), pages 514-529, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:jdevst:v:52:y:2016:i:4:p:514-529
    DOI: 10.1080/00220388.2015.1126249
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    Cited by:

    1. Arnould, Eric & Helkkula, Anu, 2024. "Imagining post-marketing: Neo-animist resource circulation and value cocreation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    2. Esther Salvi & Frank-Martin Belz & Sophie Bacq, 2023. "Informal Entrepreneurship: An Integrative Review and Future Research Agenda," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 47(2), pages 265-303, March.
    3. Kaidong Yu & Yameng Zhang & Yicong Huang, 2023. "Entrepreneurship at the Bottom of the Pyramid: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, January.
    4. Meagher, Kate, 2019. "Working in chains: African informal workers and global value chains," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 91590, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    5. Ans Kolk & Miguel Rivera-Santos & Carlos Rufín, 2018. "Multinationals, international business, and poverty: A cross-disciplinary research overview and conceptual framework," Journal of International Business Policy, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 1(1), pages 92-115, June.
    6. Dinah Rajak & Catherine Dolan, 2022. "Aspiring Minds: ‘A Generation of Entrepreneurs in the Making’," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 803-822, December.
    7. Paul Alhassan Issahaku & Anda Adam, 2022. "Young People in Newfoundland and Labrador: Community Connectedness and Opportunities for Social Inclusion," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(3), pages 21582440221, July.
    8. Ximena Castro-Sardi & Yuli Andrea Salazar & Margarita M. Munévar, 2020. "¡Todos(as) emprendedores(as)! Subjetividad y salud mental en un proceso de capacitación en emprendimiento," Revista Sociedad y Economía, Universidad del Valle, CIDSE, issue 40, pages 25-44, July.
    9. Kumar, Avinash & Kumra, Rajeev & Singh, Ramendra, 2022. "Base of the pyramid producers’ constraints: An integrated review and research agenda," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 115-129.
    10. Max Gallien & Vanessa van den Boogaard, 2023. "Formalization and its Discontents: Conceptual Fallacies and Ways Forward," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(3), pages 490-513, May.
    11. Pettit, Harry, 2018. "Selling hope? A review of current youth unemployment initiatives in Cairo," GLO Discussion Paper Series 235, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    12. Andrea Pollio, 2020. "Architectures of millennial development: Entrepreneurship and spatial justice at the bottom of the pyramid in Cape Town," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 52(3), pages 573-592, May.
    13. Kate Meagher, 2018. "Cannibalizing the Informal Economy: Frugal Innovation and Economic Inclusion in Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(1), pages 17-33, January.
    14. Jamie Cross & Tom Neumark, 2021. "Solar Power and its Discontents: Critiquing Off‐grid Infrastructures of Inclusion in East Africa," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(4), pages 902-926, July.
    15. Marco Carreras & James Sumberg & Amrita Saha, 2021. "Work and Rural Livelihoods: The Micro Dynamics of Africa’s ‘Youth Employment Crisis’," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 33(6), pages 1666-1694, December.
    16. Sutter, Christopher & Bruton, Garry D. & Chen, Juanyi, 2019. "Entrepreneurship as a solution to extreme poverty: A review and future research directions," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 197-214.
    17. Rahul Nilakantan & Deepak Iyengar & Samar K. Datta & Shashank Rao, 2021. "On Ethical Violations in Microfinance Backed Small Businesses: Family and Household Welfare," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 172(4), pages 785-802, September.
    18. Nicola Ansell & Peggy Froerer & Roy Huijsmans, 2022. "Young People’s Aspirations in an Uncertain World: Taking Control of the Future?," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 27(4), pages 795-802, December.
    19. Muñoz, Pablo & Kimmitt, Jonathan, 2018. "Entrepreneurship and the rest: The missing debate," Journal of Business Venturing Insights, Elsevier, vol. 9(C), pages 100-106.
    20. André Leliveld & Peter Knorringa, 2018. "Frugal Innovation and Development Research," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(1), pages 1-16, January.
    21. Babita Bhatt, 2022. "Ethical Complexity of Social Change: Negotiated Actions of a Social Enterprise," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 177(4), pages 743-762, May.
    22. Iva Peša, 2018. "The Developmental Potential of Frugal Innovation among Mobile Money Agents in Kitwe, Zambia," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(1), pages 49-65, January.
    23. Liedong, Tahiru Azaaviele & Peprah, Augustine Awuah & Amartey, Abednego Okoe & Rajwani, Tazeeb, 2020. "Institutional voids and firms' resource commitment in emerging markets: A review and future research agenda," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 26(3).

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