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Master of Arts / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / Theresa L. Selfa / The informal sector in India, as in other developing countries, is a source of employment and livelihoods to an overwhelmingly large proportion of workers, both in rural and urban areas. The sector is very heterogeneous and consists of both traditional and modern activities which vary widely across regions and occupations. Although the urban informal sector has been widely studied, not much work has been done on the non-agricultural rural informal sector, which has witnessed significant growth over the last several decades. The present study explores the functioning of the rural informal sector in Bihar, one of the most populous and backward states of India with a high incidence of poverty and low human development indicators. Based on case studies of two sectors – textiles and food processing – and using both quantitative and qualitative data, this study profiles the nature and characteristics of the sectors, and examines the roles of social networks and institutions in its functioning. Drawing from the economic sociology literature, it tries to understand how social networking in the rural labor market can affect economic outcomes. The findings of the study indeed show that it is difficult to explain the functioning of the rural informal sector on the basis of neo-classical economic theory. The research findings illustrate a unique kind of social networking in the rural informal sector arising from caste and religion, which can be associated with the Granovetter’s embededness theory.

Cette thèse porte principalement sur l’impact des politiques d’emploi sur l’économie informelle en Algérie. Dans le premier chapitre, nous tentons de faire le point sur les problèmes de définitions et de mesures quantitatives de l’économie informelle en essayant d’établir un cadre d’analyse standardisé permettant de réduire les conflits méthodologiques. Dans le deuxième et le troisième chapitre, nous estimons le poids réel du secteur informel et de l’emploi informel sur le marché du travail. Nous décrivons aussi les personnes qui travaillent de manière informelle. Dans le quatrième chapitre nous étudions leurs motivations et les raisons d’être de ce type d’emploi. C'est-à-dire nous chercherons à savoir s’ils relèvent d’un processus d’exclusion sociale ou bien d’un choix délibéré. Nous nous interrogeons aussi sur l’hétérogénéité de ces emplois. Dans les deux derniers chapitres nous cherchons à savoir dans quelle mesure les politiques d’emploi en Algérie ont contribué à la réduction de l’économie informelle et le chômage en Algérie respectivement. À la lumière des résultats obtenus précédemment mais aussi sur la base d’autres expériences, nous testons des mesures de politique économique. Pour réaliser cette analyse, nous exploitons les micro-données des enquêtes emplois auprès des ménages menées par l’Office National des Statistiques (ONS) entre 1997 et 2013. / This thesis focuses on impact evaluation of employment policies on the informal economy in Algeria. In the first chapter, we look to definitions and quantitative measures of the informal economy. We try to establish a standardized framework of analysis to reduce methodological conflicts. In the second and third chapters, we estimate the weight of the informal sector and informal employment in the labor market. We also describe those who are working in the informal economy. In the fourth chapter, we study their motivations and the reasons for this type of jobs. We look whether they are involved in a process of social exclusion or make a deliberate choice. We also discuss the heterogeneity of these jobs. In the two last chapters we examine if the employment policies in Algeria have contributed to reduce informality and employment. In the light of our results but also based on other experiences, we test economic policy measures. To do this we use data bases from household employment surveys conducted by the National Office of Statistics (ONS) from 1997 to 2013.

My thesis examines dynamics of inclusion and exclusion within Somali social networks in East Africa. It focuses on Somali mobility patterns and financial practices to draw insights on the maintenance, reproduction, and transformation of both solidarity ties and inequalities. By examining Somali communities in Kenya, host of the largest Somali refugee population outside of Somalia, and Uganda, an increasingly important recipient of Somali refugees and migrants, this thesis seeks to understand how mechanisms of social stratification rooted in Somali socio-cultural structures are reproduced in mixed migration flows encompassing both forced and voluntary migrants. It analyses sets of relationships whose continuity and changes are regulated by the interaction of structure, agency, and institutions, and argues, on the one hand, that networks are dominated by groups who hold sway over economic and political resources, precluding others from accessing key assets that may help challenge relations of subordination. On the other, that pre-existing inequalities hinder on the capability to move across both physical and institutional categories. These inequalities can be traced back to asymmetric clan relationships shaped by Somali historical trajectories before and after the implosion of the state. However, this thesis suggests also that kin relationships only partially explain why and how bonds are sustained and forged. Instead, by observing the mechanisms that animate networks, reproducing both solidarity and marginalisation, this thesis teases out how new linkages are created and how Somalis communities accommodate to specific institutional settings, either adapting to narrowing windows of opportunity or maximising the benefits that may be yielded from their widening. The thread running throughout this thesis is the argument that mobility contributes not only to accessing and mobilising strategic resources but also to shaping processes of social stratification. By using ethnographic methods of data collection, this thesis seeks to shed light on rifts in Somali social networks often masked by the veneer of trust.

This research calls for a reconsideration of the notion of rubbish; one that does not consider disposal as the final act of the production-consumption cycle but, instead, appreciates the practices enacted around rubbish as constitutive of value creation. Drawing on Henri Lefebvre's Production of Space (1991) and Rhythmanalysis (2004) this thesis traces the social life of rubbish to understand the social, cultural, political, and economic practices implicated in the organisation of waste. In particular, I employed a sensory ethnographic approach comprising of participant observations, self-reflexive observations, formal and informal interviews. I undertook a six months fieldwork, where I explored and documented the practices enacted by six sets of stakeholder who are involved in the organisation of rubbish in Lagos, Nigeria. Without overlooking the representational aspects (i.e. interviews, visuals) of practices, this thesis contributes to consumer research and the wider marketing discipline by tackling the more-than-representational elements of practices. The research exposes the spatial dynamics, embodied and multisensory experiences and power relations that are negotiated and co-produced when everyday practices are performed around rubbish. In so doing, I question and challenge the notion of disposal as being limited to environmentalism, green consumption and sustainability. I pushed these boundaries by investigating how rubbish acts as the lifeblood that fuels socio-spatial as well as economic relations in both formal and informal economies. This ethnographic study reveals the coping tactics and spaces of resistance that are utilised by marginalised informal operators to 'make-do' and sometimes subvert the strategies imposed by the formal authorities when they attempt to abolish these practices. The findings unmask the processual quality of practices and the recursive nature of objects in terms of their transformation from a state of 'rubbish' into valuable categories. It also makes visible the manner in which the practices enacted around rubbish (de)synchronises with natural rhythms such as seasons. The thesis alerts policymakers to the contributions of the informal waste economy to the socioeconomic development of the formal economy. It also suggests that the urge to engage in sustainable consumption practices - recycling and less consumption - can have detrimental effects on stakeholders that rely on the surplus or detritus that emerge post consumption to sustain their socioeconomic livelihoods in developing economies across the world such as Lagos, Nigeria.

Scholarly interest in the informal economy has burgeoned in recent years, in anticipation of expanding our knowledge beyond the easily observable organizational life that takes place within the formal economic system. In line with this research endeavour, the present work represents a focused study of what I have labelled 'disguised relationships'. These ties result in repeated transactions between informal economy enterprises, which fail to comply with certain elements of the laws and regulations applying to their operations, and formal firms, which operate within the state-sanctioned formal economy. Drawing on an abductive reasoning process and grounded theory approach, I conduct a case study that captures the interactions between two leading cosmetics firms (i.e. formal firms) and ten daigou enterprises (i.e. informal enterprises) between 2013 and 2017. The examination of multiple data sources (i.e. interviews, news articles and social media observations) suggests that the organizational landscape under study differs considerably from the one in which formal firms are portrayed as rational choosers of best-performing partners or exploiters of subordinate actors within the informal economy. Rather, disguised relationships emerge in a unilateral and disguised fashion following the lead of informal enterprises, and formal firms unintentionally engage in the unexpected ties. Furthermore, disguised relationships create the image of dynamism replete with, metaphorically speaking, give-take, push-pull and chase-evade. More specifically, the emergent model illustrates the interactive practices through four mechanisms: (a) informal enterprises gaining social acceptability from certain society groups and acquiring the necessary resources from the members of identity-based groups; (b) drawing on this momentum, informal enterprises forming unilateral ties with formal firms in a disguised manner; (c) formal firms counteracting the unexpected ties, with temporary compromising on the counteracting efforts; and (d) informal enterprises avoiding the combatting efforts of formal firms through socially learnt tactics and leveraging network brokers (i.e. actors sharing the same ethnic/cultural backgrounds with informal enterprises while at the same time working for formal firms). This thesis makes contributions to the literature on both interorganizational relationships and the informal economy by overcoming the perennial problem of 'dualism' that is prevalent in the extant work. First, while the subject-object dualism bestows upon formal firms a heroic status such that they are conceptualized as rational actors forming interorganizational relationships, always on the basis of plans and goals, the current work argues that formal firms may participate in unexpected, yet lasting, ties, which requires ongoing situational responsiveness. Second, the structure-agency dualism projects the static image in which formal firms deliberately establish exploitative ties with structurally isolated informal enterprises, whereas the present study suggests that informal enterprises may exercise agency to proactively establish or dissolve connections with formal firms and to strengthen or weaken the relationships at their discretion. As such, dynamism figures prominently in the interorganizational relationships between formal firms and informal enterprises.

It is well known that cross-country diferences in income per worker are very large. For example, the average per-capita income of the richest ten percent of countries of the Penn World Tables in 1996 is about thirty times that of the poorest ten percent. Development accounting uses cross-country data on output and inputs to measure the relative contribution of diferences in factor quantities, and di?erences in Total Factor Productivity (TFP) or the efciency with which those factors are used, in explaining these vast diferences in income per worker. The consensus view in development accounting is that TFP is the most important factor in accounting for diferences in income per worker across countries (See, for example, Klenow and Rodriguez-Clare (1997), Prescott (1998), Hall and Jones (1999), Ferreira, Issler and de Abreu Pessa (2000), and Caselli (2004).) This suggests that in order to explain cross-country diferences in income per worker we need to understand why TFP difers across countries. An emergent literature addresses this issue and shows that cross-country di?erences in the institutional environment, in policies, or in human capital can cause large diferences in TFP. In particular, Acemoglu and Zilibotti (2001) emphasize the role of skill-mismatch. They argue that even if all countries have equal access to new technologies, the existence of technology-skill mismatch can lead to sizeable diferences in TFP and output per worker; Parente and Prescott (2000) and Herrendorf and Teixeira (2004) build the ories in which the protection of monopoly rights impedes the adoption of superior technologies; Rogerson and Restuccia (2004) argue that diferences in the allocation of resources across heterogeneous plants may be a signi?cant factor in accounting for cross-country di?erences in output per capita; Erosa and Hidalgo (2005) propose a theory in which capital market imperfections are at the origin of cross-country TFP differences; and Kocherlakota (2001) shows that limited enforcement and high inequality are crucial to understand the existence of institutions leading to the ine?cient use of technologies.

Global waste generation trends are increasing at an alarming rate. Low- and middle-income countries (or the ‘Global South’) bear an increasing proportion of this burden, as the amount of waste produced in these countries is expected to surge drastically in the coming years. Since cities in the Global South rarely have formal municipal recycling systems, recycling activities are typically performed by waste pickers who are precariously employed and sell their wares in unpredictable, unregulated markets. That is to say, this economic activity is an archetype of what is commonly referred to as that taking place in the ‘informal sector.’ Although waste pickers must often confront exclusionary policies and social marginalization, some countries such as Colombia have begun to recognize the social, economic, and environmental contributions of informal recycling activities and have introduced policies that support waste pickers by trying to improve their working conditions. Bogotá has been recognized internationally as an example of ‘best practice’ in terms of creating inclusive policies aimed towards improving the livelihoods of waste pickers. To this end, the Colombian government has introduced, in 2016, National Decree 596, which recognizes and remunerates waste picker organizations as official providers of municipal recycling services. Although this decree legitimizes these ‘third sector’ organizations and has important implications for ‘alternative’ models of service delivery, it has had contradictory effects: although it successfully recognizes the important role that waste pickers play in the waste management system, it also introduces barriers that impede the formalization of waste picker organizations. For example, the decree sets unattainable requirements for the recognition of waste picker organizations and does little to mitigate the vulnerability that waste pickers experience in the face of competition from large, private (often multinational) companies. Based on one month of fieldwork conducted in Bogotá from November 10th to December 10th, 2017, this thesis explores these contradictions and suggests that these barriers originate from the conflicting neoliberal and rights-based orientations of the 1991 Constitution.

Notre recherche doctorale vise la problématisation des TIC, le téléphone mobile en rapport avecla question du développement socio-économique au Congo-Brazzaville. C’est l’occasion de mettre entension les discours des acteurs institutionnels et les pratiques des usagers. Nous inscrivons notre problématique en SIC, dont le « caractère interdisciplinaire peut permettre de multiplier les angles de vue » (Loneux, 2007). Nous privilégions le projet scientifique d’Harold Garfinkel, l’ethnométhodologie, en tant qu’ « analyse des façons de faire ordinaires que les acteurs sociaux ordinaires mobilisent afin de réaliser leurs actions ordinaires » (Mucchielli, 2004). La notion de communication est au coeur de notre réflexion : saisir la propension de l’activité communicationnelle à participer aux reconfigurations des pratiques socio-organisationnelles. Ainsi, notre perspective d’interprétation du réel s’emploie à dépasser les présupposés patents ou inavoués pour prétendre mettre en lumière, puis en discussion, les nouveauxmodes d’appropriation du téléphone mobile dans les nouvelles formes d’organisation des activités socioéconomiquesdes acteurs en contexte situé. Les discours de légitimation des TIC des officiels congolais relèvent de la pure « dépossession de la discursivité ». Or, les TIC ne peuvent servir le développement intégral que si les populations qui les utilisent se les approprient dans leur vie quotidienne. En ce sens, les usages du téléphone mobile ne peuvent pas être envisagés comme étant isolés, plutôt dans leur « enchâssement » dans les autres pratiques sociales des usagers congolais. Les résultats de cette recherche visent donc à enrichir les débats en SIC autour des nouvelles visions sur l’usage des TIC / This doctoral research aims to problematize ICT, connecting the mobile phone with the socioeconomic development in Congo - Brazzaville. It is the opportunity to oppose the discourses of institutional actors and practices user. We record our problem in CIS, which the "interdisciplinary nature can help to multiply the angles" (Loneux, 2007). We favor the scientific project of Harold Garfinkel, namely ethnomethodology, as an "analysis of ordinary ways to make that ordinary social actors mobilize to achieve their common shares" (Mucchielli, 2004). The notion of communication is at the heart of our reflexion : to understand the propensity of communicative activity to participate in reconfigurations of socio-organizational practices. Thus, our perspective of interpretation of reality seeks to overcome overt or unspoken presuppositions to reveal and discuss the new modes of ownership of the mobile phone in the new forms of organization of the socio-economic activities of the actors within a given environment. The discourse of legitimation of ICT Congolese officials is pure "dispossession of discursivity", (Serge Latouche, 1986). However, ICT can not serve the integral development unless people appropriate them in their daily lives. In this sense, the uses of the mobile phone cannot be considered as isolated but should be seen in their "entrenchement" in existing social practices of Congolese users. The results of this research thus aim to enrich the debates in SIC around new visions on the use of ICT

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / Poverty remains one of the greatest challenges that Southern African countries face. The state of poverty in a region is reflected in low levels of income, as well as high levels of unemployment and human deprivation. Day labouring has become evidence of the high unemployment rate in South Africa. In South Africa, the day labour market serves as a catchment area for the fallout from a formal economy, unable to provide employment to those who need it. Often, day labourers are socially excluded from the benefits of modern society, such as, access to appropriate social services, work opportunities, and a decent income. This could be perceived as social justice vulnerabilities.