Realities at the Fringe of the Economy : Women Cloth Traders in the Kinshasa Central Market

This research challenges prevailing popular ideas about the socalled "informal sector" and questions the very significance of the formal/informal classification. It also suggests an alternative analytical framework which stresses the need to understand the connections between a broad economic and political context and a set of micro socioeconomic arrangements involved in the work arena. In the light of evidence drawn from a field research undertaken in January 1988, this thesis provides insights into the dynamics of the cloth trading activity in the Kinshasa Central Market. The purpose is to understand how, and to what extent, Zairian economic growth, industrial development, macro-economic policies, traditional and modern society both shape and are shaped by the organization of work in the marketplace. More specifically, what are the relationships among traders, and between traders and other economic agents, that affect the accumulation of wealth in the marketplace? And, in turn, what are some of the implications of market trading arrangements for national politics, economy, and society?