Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo are still suffering the effects of the many conflicts that have ravaged the country. But paradoxically, Congolese women are also able to mobilize norms within various semi-autonomous fields and networks as a means of securing their day-to-day survival.Using a multisite methodology, I retraced the path of normative reconstructions initiated by women at the international, transnational, national and local levels. What I observed was that women were using (in)visibility strategies as a means of challenging oppressive social orderings while also making sure to remain a part of the social game. Indeed, the politics of visibility are a fundamental aspect of the publicand-private dynamic, where the spatialization of power takes shape. Because women have historically been the subject of these regulatory mechanisms, they have had to develop a specific type of agency. This has been facilitated by the post-colonial and post-conflict context peculiar to eastern Congo, where fragmented power structures are only able to exert partial hegemonies on individuals.
In development approaches, the link between rule of law institutional reforms and economic development is theorized by neo-institutional economics (NIE). From an economic analysis of law, NIE interprets the institutional variable through its ability to reduce uncertainty. The analysis of the relationship between institutions and development then leads to the study of institutional and normative changes. In this context, authors are referring to path dependence theory in order to explain the recurrent failure of rule of law reforms. However, I will argue that while NIE, by referring to path dependence theory, acknowledges that reforms take place within a complex set of particularities, I suggest that the notion of multijuralism, elaborated by the French legal anthropologist Étienne Le Roy, is more appropriated to describe this set of particularities in an African context. Using empirical data collected during an anthropological study regarding women’s rights in Democratic Republic of Congo, we will see that normative changes usually occur on the margins of State institutions. In addition, the embedded norms considered by NIE immobile through time are actually much more fluid than it seems.
In recent years, firms that rely on fintech to develop and deliver financial products and services have become increasingly important in the banking and financial sector. Nevertheless, fintech products raise various ethical and legal issues, particularly relating to consumer rights. These issues can be analyzed in the light of behavioral law and economics which suggest that prevalent cognitive biases systematically affect the judgment of individuals. To mitigate this bounded rationality, it is possible to guide the decision-making processes through the use of nudges and configured sets of choices. A good example is fintech gamification, defined as the use of game-related mechanisms in other areas, particularly websites or social networks. However, the use of nudges for commercial purposes is often associated with some form of manipulative tactics explicitly aimed at exploiting individuals' biases without their consent. In this context, recourse to the law is useful as it provides for the minimum requirements needed to regulate the relationship between a firm and its customers.
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