An Introduction to the African Road

Beck, Kurt; Klaeger, Gabriel; Stasik, Michael

doi:10.1163/9789004339040_002

Cited by 4 publications

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“…Rather than being determined by state-made economic structures, the sector's non-state economic actors actively negotiate the effects that economic changes -on both micro and macro scales -bring to bear on their ventures, often in quite opportunistic manners. And while those actors' activities are largely positioned outside the control of state (or formal) regulation, their economic interrelations are nevertheless structured by a plurality of non-formal forms of regulation, despite their organisation being integrative of many conflicting ends (Beck, Klaeger, and Stasik 2017;Stasik 2016). Conceived in these more refined terms, Ghana's transport sector begs the question of the applicability of the notion of informality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Popular Niche Economy of a Ghanaian Bus Station: Departure from Informality

Stasik

2018

Africa Spectrum

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This article combines the concept of a “popular economy” with that of a “niche economy” to analyse the workings of a central bus station in Accra, Ghana, and, by extension, of Ghana's public transport sector at large. In doing so it departs from generic models of the “informal sector” commonly used for describing road and roadside entrepreneurship in African contexts. At the same time, it challenges prevalent views of popular economies bent on emphasising mechanisms of reciprocity and solidarity over opportunity and profiteering. The focus on the station, it suggests, provides for a detailed reflection on the dialectics of collaboration and competition characteristic of Ghana's local transport economics, and it offers significant continuities with practices, places, and politics of economic “informality” in Africa.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Popular Niche Economy of a Ghanaian Bus Station: Departure from Informality

Stasik

2018

Africa Spectrum

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Baleinières’ Riverine Environment and the Materiality of Transport Regulation on Congo's Inland Waterways

Lambertz

2024

Africa Spectrum

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Encouraged by a crippling road infrastructure and the proliferation of Chinese low-tech engines, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo)'s baleinières have reappropriated and significantly increased the potential of DR Congo's inland waterways by democratising and tacitly decolonising the national river transportation. Given their role in the country's food security, and in the face of frequent accidents, effective regulation is requested by some as a salvatory necessity. Baleinières’ origins in the local rural economy and their clever recourse to artisanal rather than hard infrastructure make regulation difficult, however. Based on ethnographic fieldwork on and around the DR Congo's waterways, this article explores attempts and challenges to regulate medium-scale river transportation between the rural and the urban. Looked at from within the same analytical frame enabled by ethnography, governmental, and economic actors jointly emerge and condition each other's work and ethics. This challenges the conceptual binary of a putatively formalising state vs. a putatively evasive informal economy.

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Ferry Crossing, Travelling and Change in the Northern Sudan

Kurcz

2019

Ethnologia Actualis

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In the past few years, the transport infrastructure of Sudan has radically changed. New roads, transport hubs, or means of transport have had a significant impact on the culture of travelling, and many of the older institutions connected with the phenomenon are things of the past now. One of those dying out phenomena is ferry crossing on the Nile. It was not long ago that a ferry was the basic means of transport throughout the riverine area of Sudan. It was the way of transporting people and goods, both along the river and across it. Today, because of the new era of modern motorways and bridges, its time is coming to an end. What can we learn about the Sudanese travel practices from the perspective of the Nile ferry? This is a fundamental question I will provide an answer to. In the paper I refer to the field observations made in the Northern Sudan in the village of ad Ghaddar in 2013.

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An Introduction to the African Road

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

The Popular Niche Economy of a Ghanaian Bus Station: Departure from Informality

The Popular Niche Economy of a Ghanaian Bus Station: Departure from Informality

Baleinières’ Riverine Environment and the Materiality of Transport Regulation on Congo's Inland Waterways

Ferry Crossing, Travelling and Change in the Northern Sudan

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