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.

The Sub-Saharan African informal economy is often characterised by underemployment where workers spend countless hours earning bare minimum. This study investigates the impact of microfinance participation on earnings, time spent on market work, household work and leisure among women in the informal economy in Kenya. The findings are that microfinance on average increases earnings and reduces working hours due to a negatively sloping labour supply curve. This can be interpreted as an increase in productivity. As working hours are reduced, it is argued that time spent on the two other activities increase proportionally. If household work and leisure can be interpreted as activities with positive marginal utility, then these changes can be seen as income effects.

’appuyant sur une ethnographie d’environ cinq ans, effectuee entre 2010 et 2015 dans la ville de Tanger, l’enquete presentee ici interroge les formes de mobilité et les pratiques économiques mises en place par des migrants originaires de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et exclus des circuits de la mobilité privilégiée. Je décris ces individus comme des self-made-migrants qui, ne disposant pas des moyens économiques, administratifs et relationnels leur permettant d'accéder aux cir-cuits de la mobilité privilégiée, construisent, par le bas, une mobilité transnationale et subalterne réalisée par étapes et contournements de frontières. Cette mobilité se configure comme un projet et est conçue par les migrants comme un moyen pour “chercher leur vie”, a savoir pour chercher de manière autonome de nouvelles opportunités et une émancipation économique et sociale et s'imposer ainsi comme les acteurs de leur destin. Cette quête est orientée moins par une desti-nation precise que par la volonte de “sortir” et de circuler dans un ailleurs indefini et ouvert qui devient le catalyseur des imaginaires de réussite de ces migrants. Cette mobilité se réalise par étapes, à travers des découvertes, des explorations, des allers-retours : les migrants inventent ainsi étape après étape des parcours singuliers en reformulant constamment leurs itinéraires en fonction des contraintes et des opportunités qui se présentent. À travers mon enquête j'explore la relation existant entre cette forme de mobilité transnationale subalterne et des pratiques économiques de la mobilité et de la débrouille que les migrants in-ventent et développent afin d'alimenter leur trajectoire. Ces pratiques relèvent d'une économie de la pauvreté, caractérisée par des revenus extrêmement modestes et aléatoires et par un manque complet de toute forme de protection. Je montrerai que ces pratiques s'ancrent dans les marges de l'économie régulière et se greffent sur d'autres formes de mobilités qui se croisent et s'imbriquent dans la région tangéroise : des mobilités touristiques et commerciales notamment. Ces pratiques sont en outre transposables et peuvent être déclinées de manière inédite lors des étapes futures des itinéraires de ces self-made-migrants. Ces self-made-migrants sont donc les acteurs d'une mobilité subalterne qui se fonde sur des pratiques économiques de la débrouille qui leur permettent de circuler sur des territoires trans-nationaux et alimenter ainsi leur quête d'émancipation économique et sociale. Mots-clés : self-made-migrants, migration, mobilité transnationale, économie de la mobilité, économie de la débrouille, émancipation économique et sociale, étape, Maroc. / Based on an ethnographic field, made between 2010 and 2015 in the Tangier city, this research seeks to find out how the West African moves excluded of the circuits of the mainstream migration, and the economical practices they use in order to move. I describe these individuals as the self-made-migrants, whom not having access to the economical, administrative and social resources to move, they create by they own means, a transnational and subordinate mobility made by stages and border circumventions. This mobility is understood as a project, and a way to “seek their life”. For them, this expression means to look autonomously new social and economic opportunities to become the main character of their destiny. This quest is not lead by the destination but by the will of “going out” and move in an indefinite elsewhere, which becomes the catalyst of the imaginations of success of these migrants. This mobility is made by stages, through discoveries, explorations, and roundtrips. The migrants create, step by step, singular journeys by constantly reformulating the itinerary, in order to respond to the opportunities and the difficulties they found on their quest. In this research I explore the relationship between this transnational subordinated mobility and the economical practices created by the migrants in order to continue the trip. These economical strategies take part of the economics of poverty, defined by lowest and random incomes, and by a lack of protection. I’ll show that these strategies are link to the regular economy and are related to other forms of mobility found in the Tangier region. These strategies are also easy to transpose and adapt to other contexts in other steps of the journey. The self-made migrants are the actors of a subordinated mobility based on a precarious economy that nonetheless allows them to continue their transnational journey and their pursuit of an economic and social emancipation. Key Words: self-made-migrants, migration, transnational mobility, economics of the mobility, precarious economy, social and economic emancipation, stage, Morocco.

All street hawkers are not the same in many Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) of the global south as often portrayed by the media and documented in extant literature. This perception has created a gap in knowledge as researchers explore street hawking activities in NICs. In this study, I investigated a new informality trend of street hawking is coming into being within the capital city of Accra, Ghana. As governance is increasingly becoming entrepreneurial, informal activities are gradually becoming formal. Formal and registered businesses are increasingly capitalizing on hawking activities to occupy public spaces. The advent of the informality trend, I term corporate street hawking opens up new issues for the political economy, labor, and urban studies. By employing semi-structured interviews with 47 street hawkers in Accra, this paper sought to investigate three broadly interrelated questions. First, how do neoliberal policies impact the production of public space in Accra? Second, is corporate street hawking a form of creative destruction? Finally, how do corporate street hawkers practice agency within Accra?