Capitalist and petty commodity production in Nigeria: A note

Williams, Gavin; Tumusiime-Mutebile, Emmanuel

doi:10.1016/0305-750x(78)90066-9

Cited by 12 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…Since benefits of formality are usually significant from the employee's perspective, there would never be a reason to return to informality. This provides another economic way of distinguishing the informal sector as a reserve army of unemployed, operating processes that are defective and likely to remain that way, from production processes that may promise to scale into highly profitable, capital-intensive (physical or human) drivers of economic growth (Gibson & Kelley, 1994;Williams & Tumusiime-Mutebile, 1978). 6.…”

Section: Policy Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juridical and Functional Informality: From Theory to Practical Policy

Gibson

Flaherty

2016

Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research

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The purpose of this article is to deepen the understanding of informality, and related efforts governments must take to cope with large and persistent informal sectors. Is the informal sector a source of growth and employment or a drain on the fiscus that undermines social safety nets? This article questions the ‘formal sector bias’ present in much of the policy discussions surrounding informality. A theoretically grounded distinction between ‘functional’ and ‘juridical’ informality is drawn and applied to subcontracting as an illustrative case. The broad conclusion of the paper is not supportive of public intervention to formalise the informal sector but rather suggests that tolerating the informal sector might well improve economic performance as measured by output and employment. JEL Classification: O17, E17

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Section: Policy Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Juridical and Functional Informality: From Theory to Practical Policy

Gibson

Flaherty

2016

Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research

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“…Instead, he has persisted in 'taking the part of the peasantry', arguing for the efficiency and developmental potential of local institutional creativity as an alternative to domineering and profligate state structures (Williams 1976). At about the same time as the prophets of the Confucian ethic were revolutionising the analysis of capitalist development in East Asia, Gavin was arguing for the capacity of embedded economic institutions to produce development in Africa (Williams 1980, Williams andTumusiime-Mutebile 1978). Against my expectations, reading Weber opened my eyes to what Steven Feierman (1999) calls the 'invisible histories' of indigenous processes of institutional change and economic rationalisation emanating from within African societies -a discovery which has profoundly marked my thinking ever since.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Weber meets Godzilla: social networks and the spirit of capitalism in East Asia and Africa

Meagher

2012

Review of African Political Economy

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This paper explores the cultural foundations of contemporary network capitalism in East Asia, and its implications for African enterprise development. It considers how neo-Weberian perspectives on the cultural determinants of East Asian network success have served to validate intensified processes of labour exploitation while glossing over the role of the state in making networks work for development. It is argued that the ideology of the Confucian ethic draws on notions of social solidarity to normalise the use of unfree labour in capitalist accumulation strategies, while concealing the critical role of the state in mobilising society around cultural values and socialising risk to diffuse potentially disruptive social tensions. The obfuscation of these processes in cultural analyses of Asian network success has cast the poor performance of African enterprise networks as a product of cultural dysfunction, obscuring underlying processes of state withdrawal and policy failure. The problems arising from Chinese business networks in Africa bring out the contradictions of cultural interpretations of network dynamism. [Weber rencontre Godzilla : les réseaux sociaux et l'esprit du capitalisme en Asie de l'Est et en Afrique]. Cet article explore les fondements culturels du réseau du capitalisme contemporain en Asie de l'Est et ses implications pour le développement des entreprises en Afrique. Il considère la manière dont les perspectives néo-wébériennes sur les déterminants culturels de la réussite du réseau de l'Asie de l'Est ont servi à valider les processus intensifiés de l'exploitation du marché du travail tout en passant sous silence le rôle de l'État en faisant en sorte que les réseaux puissent œuvrer pour le développement. Il est soutenu que l'idéologie de l'étique confucéenne s'appuie sur les notions de solidarité sociale afin de normaliser l'utilisation du travail non libre dans les stratégies de l'accumulation capitaliste, tout en dissimulant le rôle déterminant de l'État dans la mobilisation de la société autour des valeurs culturelles et la banalisation du risque susceptible de provoquer des tensions sociales potentielles et perturbatrices. L'occultation de ces processus dans les analyses culturelles de la réussite du réseau asiatique a mis en lumière la mauvaise performance des réseaux d'entreprises africaines en tant que produit d'un dysfonctionnement culturel, occultant les processus souterrains de désengagement de l'État et l'échec des dispositions. Les problèmes émergeant des réseaux d'entreprises chinoises en Afrique mettent en évidence les contradictions d'interprétations culturelles de la dynamique de réseau. Mots-clés: les réseaux sociaux; le capitalisme; l'Asie de l'Est; l'Afrique

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“…The urban economy is conceptualized in terms of a continuum of economic activities with petty commodity production recognized as a form of production existing at the margins of the capitalist mode of production but nevertheless integrated into it in a dependent or subordinate fashion (LeBrun & Gerry 1975, Moser 1978, Bromley & Gerry 1979, Gerry 1979. The persistent feature of stagnating incomes in petty commodity production is linked to its important r61e within the capitalist mode of production of keeping down the reproduction costs of urban wage labour (Williams & Tumusiime-Mutebile 1978, McGee 1979, Forbes 1981.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%