Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-7qhmt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-27T12:10:00.648Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

MONEY AND SOCIALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA'S INFORMAL ECONOMY

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 January 2012

Abstract

This article examines the interplay of agency, culture and context in order to consider the social embeddedness of money and trade at the margins of South Africa's economy. Focusing on small-scale, survivalist informal enterprise operators, it draws on socio-cultural analysis to explore the social dynamics involved in generating and managing wealth. After describing the informal sector in South Africa, the article elucidates the relationship between money and economic informality. First, diverse objectives, typically irreducible to the maximization of profit, animate those in the informal sector and challenge meta-narratives of a ‘great transformation’ towards socially disembedded and depersonalized economic relationships. Second, regimes of economic governance, both state-led and informal, shape the terrain on which informal economic activity occurs in complex and constitutive ways. Third, local idioms and practices of trading, managing money and negotiating social claims similarly configure economic activities. Fourth, and finally, encroaching and often inexorable processes of formalization differentially influence those in the informal sector. The analysis draws on these findings to recapitulate both the ubiquity and centrality of the sociality at the heart of economy, and to examine the particular forms they take in South Africa's informal economy.

Résumé

Cet article examine l'interaction de la culture, de l'action et du contexte pour étudier l'enchâssement social de l'argent et du commerce à la marge de l’économie sud-africaine. À travers le cas des entrepreneurs informels menant des activités de survie à petite échelle, il explore à partir d'une analyse socioculturelle la dynamique sociale qui intervient dans la génération et la gestion de patrimoine. Après avoir décrit le secteur informel en Afrique du Sud, l'article explique la relation entre l'argent et l'informalité économique. Premièrement, des objectifs divers, qui ne peuvent généralement pas se réduire à la maximisation du profit, animent les acteurs du secteur informel et remettent en question les métarécits d'une « grande transformation » vers des relations économiques socialement désenchâssées et personnalisées. Deuxièmement, des régimes de gouvernance économique (dirigés par l’État et informels) façonnent le terrain sur lequel survient l'activité économique informelle de manière complexe et constitutive multiple. Troisièmement, les idiomes locaux et les pratiques de commerce, de gestion d'argent et de négociation des revendications sociales configurent de la même façon les activités économiques. Enfin quatrièmement, des processus de formalisation envahissants et souvent inexorables influencent différentiellement ceux du secteur informel. L'analyse s'appuie sur ces conclusions pour récapituler à la fois l'ubiquité et la centralité de la socialité au cœur de l’économie, et pour examiner les formes particulières qu'elles prennent dans l’économie informelle en Afrique du Sud.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Andrews, M. and Fox, R. C. (2004) ‘Undercultivation and intensification in the Transkei: a case study of historical changes in the use of arable land in Nompa, Shixini’, Development Southern Africa 21 (4): 687706.Google Scholar
Bähre, E. (2007) Money and Violence: financial self-help groups in a South African township. Leiden, Brill.Google Scholar
Bank, L. (1997) ‘Of livestock and deadstock: entrepreneurship and tradition on the South African highveld’ in Bryceson, D. F. and Jamal, V. (eds), Farewell to Farms: de-agrarianisation and employment in Africa. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F. (1993) The State in Africa: the politics of the belly. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bayart, J.-F., Ellis, S. and Hibou, B. (eds) (1999) The Criminalisation of the State in Africa. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Beckert, J. (2007) ‘The social order of markets’, Discussion Paper 07/15, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, Cologne.Google Scholar
Beuving, J. J. (2004) ‘Cotonou's Klondike: African traders and second-hand car markets in Benin’, Journal of Modern African Studies 42 (4): 511–37.Google Scholar
Bloch, M. and Parry, J. (1989) ‘Introduction: money and the morality of exchange’ in Parry, J. and Bloch, M. (eds), Money and the Morality of Exchange. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bracking, S. and Sachikonye, L. (2006) ‘Remittances, poverty reduction and the informalization of household wellbeing in Zimbabwe’, Global Poverty Research Group Working Paper Series, GPRG-WPS-045, <http://www.gprg.org/pubs/workingpapers/default.htm>, accessed 11 November 2007.,+accessed+11+November+2007.>Google Scholar
Bryceson, D. F. and Jamal, V. (eds) (1997) Farewell to Farms: de-agrarianisation and employment in Africa. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Chen, A. M. (2007) ‘Rethinking the informal economy: linkages with the formal economy and the formal regulatory environment’, DESA Working Paper No. 46, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York.Google Scholar
Cichello, P. (2005) ‘Hindrances to self-employment: evidence from the 2000 Khayelitsha/Mitchell's Plain Survey’, Working Paper 101, Centre for Social Science Research, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Cichello, P., Fields, G. S. and Leibbrandt, M. (2005) ‘Earnings and employment dynamics for Africans in post-apartheid South Africa: a panel study of KwaZulu-Natal’, Journal of African Economies 14 (2): 143–90.Google Scholar
Collins, D. (2005) ‘Financial instruments of the poor: initial findings from the South African Financial Diaries study’, Development Southern Africa 22 (5): 717–28.Google Scholar
Collins, D., Morduch, J., Rutherford, S. and Ruthven, O. (2009) Portfolios of the Poor: how the world's poor live on $2 a day. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Cousins, B., Cousins, T., Hornby, D., Kingwill, R., Royston, L. and Smit, W. (2005) ‘Will formalising property rights reduce poverty in South Africa's “second economy”?’, Policy Brief 18, Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape.Google Scholar
Davis, M. (2006) Planet of Slums. London: Verso.Google Scholar
de Soto, H. (2000) The Mystery of Capital. London: Bantam.Google Scholar
Devey, R., Valodia, I. and Skinner, C. (2006) ‘Second best? trends and linkages in the informal economy in South Africa’, DPRU Working Paper 06/102, Development Policy Research Unit, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Dugard, J. (2000) ‘Taxi Wars in South Africa's Transition: the informalisation of violence and the economy’. Unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
du Toit, A. and Neves, D. (2007) ‘Understanding self-employment at the margins of the South African economy: findings from a pilot study on qualitative approaches to self-employment’. Report by the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS) for the National Income Dynamics Study Steering Committee, Office of the Presidency, Cape Town.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (1992) ‘The cultural topography of wealth: commodity paths and the structure of property in rural Lesotho’, American Anthropologist 94 (1): 5573.Google Scholar
Ferguson, J. (1999) Expectations of Modernity: myths and meanings of urban life on the Zambian copperbelt. Berkeley CA: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Foxcroft, M., Wood, E., Kew, J., Herrington, M. and Segal, M. (2002) ‘Global entrepreneurship monitor: South African executive report’, Graduate School of Business, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Fukuyama, F. (1995) ‘Social capital and the global economy’, Foreign Affairs 74 (5): 89103.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. (1985) ‘Economic action and social structure: the problem of embeddedness’, American Journal of Sociology 91 (3): 481510.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. (2005) ‘The impact of social structure on economic outcomes’, Journal of Economic Perspectives 19 (1): 3350.Google Scholar
Granovetter, M. and Swedberg, R. (2001) The Sociology of Economic Life. Boulder CO: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Guyer, J. I. (2004) Marginal Gains: monetary transactions in Atlantic Africa. Chicago IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Hart, K. (1973) ‘Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana’, Journal of Modern African Studies 11 (1): 6189.Google Scholar
Humphrey, C. (2002) The Unmaking of Soviet life: everyday economies after socialism. Ithaca NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Kloosterman, R., van der Leun, J. and Rath, J. (1999) ‘Mixed embeddedness: (in)formal economic activities and immigrant businesses in the Netherlands’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 23 (2): 252–66.Google Scholar
KLS/CCT (2009) ‘An audit of spaza shops in Khayelitsha, Cape Town’. Research report by Knowledge Cape Town: Link Services and the City of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Lund, F. and Skinner, F. (2003) ‘Integrating the informal economy in urban planning and governance: a case study of the process of policy development in Durban, South Africa’, International Development Planning Review 26 (4): 431–56.Google Scholar
Maas, G. and Herrington, M. (2006) ‘Global Entrepreneurship Monitor: South African executive report 2006’, Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, University of Cape Town.Google Scholar
Mamdani, M. (1996) Citizen and Subject: contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Meagher, K. (2009) ‘Culture, agency and power: theoretical reflections on informal economic networks and political processes’, DIIS Working Paper 27, Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen.Google Scholar
Meagher, K. (2010) Identity Economics: social networks and the informal economy in Nigeria. Woodbridge: James Currey.Google Scholar
Neves, D., Samson, M., van Niekerk, I., Hlatshwayo, S. and du Toit, T. (2009) ‘The use and effectiveness of social grants in South Africa’. Research report, FinMark Trust, Johannesburg.Google Scholar
Nyamnjoh, F. B. (2002) ‘Domestication, agency and subjectivity in the Cameroonian Grassfields’ in Werbner, R. (ed.), Postcolonial Subjectivities in Africa. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
Petersen, L. and Charman, A. (2008) ‘Making markets work for the poor – understanding the informal economy in Limpopo’. Report for the Limpopo Centre for Local Economic Development, commissioned by Sustainable Livelihood Consultants and Cardno Agrisystems, Cape Town.Google Scholar
Philip, K. (2009) ‘Second economy strategy: addressing inequality and economic marginalisation: a strategy framework’. Strategy paper for Trade and Industrial Policy Strategies, Pretoria.Google Scholar
Polanyi, K. (1957) The Great Transformation. Boston MA: Beacon Press.Google Scholar
Republic of South Africa (RSA) (2003) Government Gazette 461 (26), November. Cape Town: Government Printer, <http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=68002>, accessed 3 June 2010.,+accessed+3+June+2010.>Google Scholar
Rogerson, C. M. (2007) ‘“Second economy” versus informal economy: a South African affair’ Editorial, Geoforum 38 (6): 1053–7.Google Scholar
Roitman, J. (2003) ‘Unsanctioned wealth, or the productivity of debt in northern Cameroon’, Public Culture 15 (2): 211–37.Google Scholar
Roitman, J. (2005) Fiscal Disobedience: an anthropology of economic regulation in Central Africa. Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Seekings, J. and Nattrass, N. (2005) Class, Race and Inequality in South Africa. New Haven CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Skinner, C. (2006) ‘Securing livelihoods: a gendered analysis of support interventions available to street traders in the Durban metropolitian area’, Research Report No. 34, Centre for Social and Development Studies (CSDS), University of KwaZulu-Natal.Google Scholar
Spiegel, A. (1996) ‘Introduction: domestic fluidity in South Africa’, Social Dynamics 22 (1): 56.Google Scholar
van Donge, K. J. (1992) ‘Waluguru traders in Dar es Salaam: an analysis of the social construction of economic life’, African Affairs 91 (363): 181205.Google Scholar
von Broembsen, M. (2008) ‘SMMEs, the informal sector and the “second economy”’, PLAAS Working Paper 10, Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies, University of the Western Cape.Google Scholar
Western Cape Provincial Government (2005) ‘Committee of inquiry into the underlying causes of instability and conflict in the minibus taxi industry in the Cape Town metropolitan area’. Report, Western Cape Provincial Government, Cape Town.Google Scholar
Wolpe, H. (1972) ‘Capitalism and cheap labour power in South Africa: from segregation to apartheid’, Economy and Society 1 (4): 425–56.Google Scholar