This study investigates the relationship between gender, social capital and resilience in four of British Columbia’s rural, island communities. Each community’s unique circumstances provide a distinctive context in which to study the interaction between these concepts. This study utilizes quantitative data from several sources, including Statistics Canada, BC Stats, and a mail out survey conducted by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP). This study also utilizes qualitative data from several sources, including two sets of RCP interviews, interviews carried out in the Haida First Nation community of Old Massett, and participant observation. The results of these case studies confirm the necessity of taking context into consideration in any study of the operation of social capital. Within this specific context, social networks operate very differently than in an urban setting. The small size of these rural communities means that the entire community functions as one social network, within which residents have ties of differing strengths. The strength of their ties determines their access to resources within the network, as access to these resources is only given to those who are accountable and trustworthy. Through visible and repeated social interaction, residents built strong ties to one another. These ties allow for processes of generalized reciprocity to take place, wherein residents give to others with no immediate expectation of receiving back, knowing that should they need help, it will be available. This process relies entirely on the trust built up through repeated interactions and the sanctions imposed on those who break it, and contributes greatly to community resilience. Women play a particular role within these communities. Unlike studies that find that women are disadvantaged by their social networks, the results of this study find that women have parlayed their higher levels of involvement in the social life of the community and the informal economy into beneficial social networks based on trust and reciprocity. In addition, their higher levels of education put them at the forefront of the new service economy with lower levels of unemployment and equal likelihood of self-employment, all of which contributes not only to individual resilience, but community resilience as well.

This dissertation examines the livelihood strategies of African dock workers in Durban, South Africa, between the Anglo-Boer War and the 1959 strikes. These labourers did not conform to common conceptions of radical dock workers or conservative African migrant workers. While Marxist scholars have been correct to stress the working class consciousness of Durban’s dock workers, this consciousness was also more ambiguous. These workers and their leaders displayed a peculiar mix of concern for workers’ issues and defences of the rights and interests of African traders. Many of Durban’s dock workers were not only wage labourers. In fact, only a minority had wages as their only source of income. The Reserve economy played a role in sustaining the consumption levels of their households and, more importantly, more than half of the former dock workers interviewed for this research engaged in some form of commercial enterprise, often based on the pilferage and sale of cargoes. Some also teamed up with township women who sold pilfered goods while the men were at work. This combination of commercial strategies and wage labour has often been overlooked in the literature. By looking at these livelihood strategies, this dissertation considers how rural and urban economies interacted in households’ strategies and reinterprets the reproduction of labour and the household in order to move beyond dichotomies of proletarian versus rural consciousness. The dock workers’ households were neither proletarian households that were forced to reside in the countryside because of apartheid, nor traditional rural homesteads with a missing migrant member. The households were reproduced in three geographically separate spheres of production and consumption, none of which could reproduce the household on its own. These spheres were dependent on each other, but also separate, as physical distance gave the different household members some autonomy. Such multi-nodal households not only bridged the rural and the urban, but equally straddled the formal/informal divide. For many, their employment on the docks made their commercial enterprises possible, which allowed them to retire early from urban wage labour. Consequently, the interests of wage labourers could not be divorced from those of African small-scale entrepreneurs. / Thesis (Ph.D, History) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-26 17:14:17.474

This study investigates the relationship between gender, social capital and resilience in four of British Columbia’s rural, island communities. Each community’s unique circumstances provide a distinctive context in which to study the interaction between these concepts. This study utilizes quantitative data from several sources, including Statistics Canada, BC Stats, and a mail out survey conducted by the Resilient Communities Project (RCP). This study also utilizes qualitative data from several sources, including two sets of RCP interviews, interviews carried out in the Haida First Nation community of Old Massett, and participant observation. The results of these case studies confirm the necessity of taking context into consideration in any study of the operation of social capital. Within this specific context, social networks operate very differently than in an urban setting. The small size of these rural communities means that the entire community functions as one social network, within which residents have ties of differing strengths. The strength of their ties determines their access to resources within the network, as access to these resources is only given to those who are accountable and trustworthy. Through visible and repeated social interaction, residents built strong ties to one another. These ties allow for processes of generalized reciprocity to take place, wherein residents give to others with no immediate expectation of receiving back, knowing that should they need help, it will be available. This process relies entirely on the trust built up through repeated interactions and the sanctions imposed on those who break it, and contributes greatly to community resilience. Women play a particular role within these communities. Unlike studies that find that women are disadvantaged by their social networks, the results of this study find that women have parlayed their higher levels of involvement in the social life of the community and the informal economy into beneficial social networks based on trust and reciprocity. In addition, their higher levels of education put them at the forefront of the new service economy with lower levels of unemployment and equal likelihood of self-employment, all of which contributes not only to individual resilience, but community resilience as well.

This study sought to analyse the role of foreign aid in poverty alleviation and economic development of Ghana from 1957 to 2008. Literature related to the study on foreign aid and economic development was reviewed to get an insight into the views of other writers on the topic under study. The study adopted both primary and secondary sources of data to examine the concept of foreign aid, poverty reduction and economic development in Ghana. The study collected data using qualitative interviews consisting of open- and close-ended questions from the field. Content analysis involving the use of existing materials by researchers and the analyses of data originally collected by others was also relied on as a complement to the primary sources in the study. The study found that donor aid is not well coordinated in Ghana because of the proliferation of donor agencies in the country. Though aid is provided to the Ghanaian economy to address poverty and economic development challenges, the study found that foreign aid did not achieve the set objectives because of poor management of donor resources. This study, therefore, recommends that the informal economy should be promoted with funding from microfinance as an alternative to donor-driven development to effectively harness the natural resources in the country for development. / Development Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (Development Studies)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A migração laboral de bolivianos para São Paulo é um processo intrinsecamente relacionado aos planos de ajuste estrutural ocorridos na Bolívia e no Brasil na segunda metade dos anos 1980 e no início da década de 1990, respectivamente. Para a Bolívia, o Decreto 21.060 implicou a privatização de mineradoras e conseqüentes demissões em massa, além de uma abertura econômica que favoreceu migrações internas para as regiões cocaleiras e para as periferias das grandes cidades. Posteriormente, esses migrantes e seus familiares se destinaram a países limítrofes como Argentina e Brasil. Destaca-se nesse contexto a localidade de El Alto, origem de grande parte dos imigrantes que se destinaram a São Paulo. Do lado brasileiro, houve também uma abertura econômica que foi prejudicial a amplos setores da indústria, como a cadeia têxtil-vestuário. Para reduzir os custos de produção e aumentar sua competitividade em relação às mercadorias asiáticas, a indústria de vestuário se reestruturou defensivamente e subcontratou grande parte de sua produção material às oficinas informais que empregam imigrantes bolivianos geralmente jovens, indocumentados e com baixa qualificação profissional. Nessa pesquisa, relacionamos esse fluxo populacional às transformações estruturais ocorridas nos dois países, destacando as mudanças nas relações de trabalho decorrentes do processo de reestruturação produtiva. Também abordamos as redes de solidariedade desses imigrantes e os meios pelos quais estes vêm revertendo uma inserção na sociedade de destino em que predominam condições precárias de trabalho e habitação, além de uma instabilidade permanente decorrente da irregularidade documental que atinge grande parte desses trabalhadores. / The Bolivian immigration to São Paulo is related to the structural adjustment plans which took place in both countries. In Bolivia, the State mines were privatized, meaning the loss of approximately thirty thousand jobs. The open trade policy was also harmful to familiar agriculture and both policies were followed by the migration to coca zones, the outskirts of the biggest cities and other countries, like Argentina and Brazil. In this context, the population of the city of El Alto located in the outskirts of La Paz - grew steeply and became the origin of most of the immigrants that travelled to São Paulo. On the Brazilian side, the trade-opening was harmful to many industrial sectors and led to their productive restructuring. That was the case of the garment sector which, to reduce its costs, outsourced the production to the sweatshops where the Bolivians work. These immigrants are mostly poor, undocumented and have low education level. In this research, we also relate this population flow to the structural transformations in these two countries, like the changes in the labor relations that occurred due to the productive restructuring processes. We also address the solidarity networks of these immigrants and the means by which they are improving their conditions on the destination society, where precarious work and habitation conditions prevail as well as a permanent instability as result of the irregular documentation for a expressive part of these workers.

This thesis examines how the agency of informal vendors in Kampala, Uganda, is shaped by the state. It argues that efforts by the President and the NRM to monopolize political power have dramatically restricted the agency of informal street and market vendors, forcing them to adapt to changing political circumstances in ways that have limited their ability to participate in urban development and economic life. This argument is presented through two examples of how expanding political control has led to a contraction of vendors’ agency. The first of these describes how the early decentralization and democratization reforms introduced by the NRM allowed street vendors to take advantage of competition between newly elected and empowered politicians to remain on the city’s streets, and how the central government’s subsequent recentralization and de-democratization of political power in Kampala has led to the repression of street vending while closing the channels of influence that vendors previously enjoyed. The second explores how efforts by the central government to undermine the opposition-led local government allowed market vendors to successfully oppose an unpopular market privatization initiative, and how both the President and the new city government have since been able to take advantage of disputes within markets for their own purposes while vendors have been largely unable to realize their market management and development ambitions. Both examples detail the causes, forms and implications of the ruling party’s monopolization of political power and explore how vendors have responded to their changing political circumstances, highlighting how these efforts face significant obstacles due to the increasingly restrictive environment in which vendors are forced to act. This thesis shows that the agency of informal vendors—while always manifest in certain ways—is constantly and increasingly constrained as the President and the ruling party tighten their grip on power. As their political exclusion precipitates a broader exclusion from urban development and economic life, informal vendors are forced to contend with a situation of increasing marginalization and vulnerability that they are largely unable to improve.

This is a study of a group of young people that explores their journeys into, and experiences within, the informal economy. Evidence has shown that young people have always been more disadvantaged in a context of high levels of unemployment, limited job opportunities and entitlement to welfare benefits. As an alternative to low paying jobs with poor working conditions, and in addition to strict conditions for claiming benefits, some young people are making the decision to engage in criminal ways of generating income. This study examines the experiences of twenty-six young people from Luton and Cambridge who had engaged in begging, drug dealing and sex work as alternative forms of ‘work’ in their transitions to adulthood. It explores the structural, cultural and biographical factors that influence their informal career decision-making processes, by drawing on Bourdieu’s social field theory. By examining the lived experiences of these young people, the study throws more light on the role of structure and personal agency in the decisions the young people made in engaging in the informal economy. These young people wanted to be seen as ‘normal’ young people. Most were hardworking, and ambitious, and their engagement in informal economic activities was often a ‘means to an end’. This study also identifies strategies that were employed by the young people for their successful navigating of the economy, and highlights the importance of elements like trust, respect and knowledge in their negotiations. It assesses how the issue of risk was managed with the help of what was seen to be an unwritten code of conduct in the field. The study also identified a hierarchy within the field, which was determined by the individual participants, depending on their personal perceptions and perspectives. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews, over a period of a year. The process of collecting data was long and difficult, highlighting the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting research with a ‘hidden’ population. The findings throw new light on the unique challenges young people face both in the formal job market, and in accessing welfare support, in light of the significant changes to social policy in the UK.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico / A migração laboral de bolivianos para São Paulo é um processo intrinsecamente relacionado aos planos de ajuste estrutural ocorridos na Bolívia e no Brasil na segunda metade dos anos 1980 e no início da década de 1990, respectivamente. Para a Bolívia, o Decreto 21.060 implicou a privatização de mineradoras e conseqüentes demissões em massa, além de uma abertura econômica que favoreceu migrações internas para as regiões cocaleiras e para as periferias das grandes cidades. Posteriormente, esses migrantes e seus familiares se destinaram a países limítrofes como Argentina e Brasil. Destaca-se nesse contexto a localidade de El Alto, origem de grande parte dos imigrantes que se destinaram a São Paulo. Do lado brasileiro, houve também uma abertura econômica que foi prejudicial a amplos setores da indústria, como a cadeia têxtil-vestuário. Para reduzir os custos de produção e aumentar sua competitividade em relação às mercadorias asiáticas, a indústria de vestuário se reestruturou defensivamente e subcontratou grande parte de sua produção material às oficinas informais que empregam imigrantes bolivianos geralmente jovens, indocumentados e com baixa qualificação profissional. Nessa pesquisa, relacionamos esse fluxo populacional às transformações estruturais ocorridas nos dois países, destacando as mudanças nas relações de trabalho decorrentes do processo de reestruturação produtiva. Também abordamos as redes de solidariedade desses imigrantes e os meios pelos quais estes vêm revertendo uma inserção na sociedade de destino em que predominam condições precárias de trabalho e habitação, além de uma instabilidade permanente decorrente da irregularidade documental que atinge grande parte desses trabalhadores. / The Bolivian immigration to São Paulo is related to the structural adjustment plans which took place in both countries. In Bolivia, the State mines were privatized, meaning the loss of approximately thirty thousand jobs. The open trade policy was also harmful to familiar agriculture and both policies were followed by the migration to coca zones, the outskirts of the biggest cities and other countries, like Argentina and Brazil. In this context, the population of the city of El Alto located in the outskirts of La Paz - grew steeply and became the origin of most of the immigrants that travelled to São Paulo. On the Brazilian side, the trade-opening was harmful to many industrial sectors and led to their productive restructuring. That was the case of the garment sector which, to reduce its costs, outsourced the production to the sweatshops where the Bolivians work. These immigrants are mostly poor, undocumented and have low education level. In this research, we also relate this population flow to the structural transformations in these two countries, like the changes in the labor relations that occurred due to the productive restructuring processes. We also address the solidarity networks of these immigrants and the means by which they are improving their conditions on the destination society, where precarious work and habitation conditions prevail as well as a permanent instability as result of the irregular documentation for a expressive part of these workers.

Através do estudo do trabalho ambulante regularizado, a pesquisa discute as transformações na área central influenciadas pela espacialização dos circuitos de produtos que compõem o denominado \"comércio popular\". Cada circuito aciona uma rede de relações específicas, as quais podem existir na mais absoluta legalidade ou estarem ligadas ao contrabando, pirataria e falsificação. O mercado de produtos cuja oferta é criminalizada movimenta outro que transaciona \"mercadorias políticas\" - negociações de caráter político transformadas em valores monetários - tanto no âmbito das normas comerciais, quanto das que regulamentam a apropriação do território. A hipótese é que as negociações observadas no comércio ambulante constituem formas de gestão dos espaços da área central, as quais são compartilhadas entre o Poder Público e outros agentes. Por continuamente transitarem nas liminaridades do ilegal, ilícito e informal; elas caracterizam o território como uma \"zona de indeterminação\" entre o direito e o não-direito, a lei e a norma, o juízo e o arbítrio. Aborda-se a questão tendo como referência o caso de Campinas, cidade sede de uma região metropolitana localizada no interior do estado de São Paulo. A organização dos trabalhadores em ocupações nos espaços públicos - realizada pela Prefeitura desde os anos 1980 - resultou na construção de um imaginário sobre a atividade, no qual tem papel fundamental a negociação monetária da licença de uso. Para compreensão deste processo, foram analisadas especificamente as políticas de regulamentação adotadas de 2001 a 2004, período em que a regularização de novos espaços perpassou o debate sobre os sentidos da revitalização do centro. Os desdobramentos dessas políticas, captados nas falas dos entrevistados de 2005 a 2010, ajudaram a montar um quadro das negociações e a identificar a complexificação da população que vive da atividade. A convivência nas áreas regularizadas entre as dimensões clássicas e as reconfigurações do trabalho ambulante - provenientes do atual papel que a informalidade ocupa nos processos de acumulação - abre novas questões para a análise do chamado centro \"degradado\" e \"decadente\", locus do comércio popular. / Through the study of the regularized street trading, the research discusses the transformations in the central area influenced by the spatialization of products circuits that constitute the known \"popular trade\". Each circuit triggers a network of specific relationships which can exist in the strictest legality or be linked to smuggling, piracy and counterfeiting. The market of products whose bid is criminalized moves other which transacts \"political commodities\" - political negotiations converted into monetary values - both in the context of trade rules, as those which regulate the appropriation of the territory. The hypothesis is that the negotiations observed in the spaces of street trading constitute a form of downtown\'s territory management, which is shared between Public Power and other agents. By continually transiting in illegal\'s liminality, illicit and informal, they characterize the territory as a \"zone of indeterminacy\" between right and rightless, law and norm, judge and will. It is addressed taking Campinas as a reference, a regional metropolis located within the state of Sao Paulo. The organization of workers in public territory occupations - held by the Prefecture since the 1980s -resulted in the construction of an ideal about the activity, in which the license\'s monetary negotiation plays a key role. To understand this process, the regulatory policies adopted from 2001 to 2004 are analyzed specifically, during which the regularization of new territories pervaded the debate on the meanings of downtown\'s revitalization. The consequences of these policies, as captured in the words of those interviewed from 2005 to 2010, helped to set up a negotiating framework and to identify the complexification of the population which does this activity for a living. The living in the regularized areas between classical dimension and the reconfiguration of street trading from the current informality role in the process of accumulation opens new questions for analyzing the \"degraded\" and \"decadent\" downtown, locus of the popular trade.

Since China's shift to market socialism, many marginalized by this process work as informal street vendors where they reappropriate public space in order to survive―a practice at odds with urban authorities' modernizing agenda. In relation to these competing logics concerning public space's use value versus its exchange value, this dissertation examines the practices, experiences, and agency of informal street vendors working in Sanjingwuwei, an ordinary, yet rapidly gentrifying, neighborhood of Nanchang, capital and largest city of southeastern China's Jiangxi Province. After describing the growth of an informal economy in modern China and providing a history of street vending, I describe the everyday practices of vendors and their reappropriation of public space in Nanchang and the Sanjingwuwei neighborhood. I then provide the socio-demographic details of Sanjingwuwei’s vendors and use their voices to demonstrate how city image protection, a burgeoning informal sector, and the globalization of urban space bring challenges to their already precarious work in the streets. The dissertation concludes by linking the practices and agency of Nanchang’s vendors into a theoretical discussion concerning the agency of informal street workers. Despite daily attempts by the local state to remove them, this study shows how Nanchang's street vendors, continue to actively engaging in alternative forms of urban space-making through reappropriating of public space. Therefore, this dissertation shows how vendors challenge the city as a system by downscaling, slowing down, decommodifying, and ultimately, deglobalizing urban space to neighborhood-level through their reappropriation of public space.