The political economy of informal markets: Restructuring economies, gender and women's lives in Maputo, Mozambique

The informal economy is an important albeit underestimated sector of modern economies. Most scholars studying the informal economy have conceptualized it in terms of a dichotomy or a continuum in which the formal and informal economies represent the extreme ends of the economic spectrum. They define the informal economy as a static, non-modern, traditional sector, which is on its way to becoming modern and to being incorporated into the formal economy. The problem with these theories is that they ignore the "working" and dynamism of the informal economy. They also ignore the daily realities of informal traders and fail to recognize the diversity of the population, which comprises the informal economy.;This dissertation examines the political economy of the informal markets in Maputo, Mozambique and focuses on the challenges facing poor women and men in the informal markets under liberalization. This study is a result of about ten months of historic and ethnographic field research on informal markets in Maputo and at the Mozambican border with South Africa, Swaziland, and Zimbabwe. I have combined observations, interviews, life stories, and surveys, to obtain the insights and data necessary to understand the role of the informal economy and liberalization programs on the people's lives.;My findings suggest that although the informal economy in Mozambique first appeared as a result of colonial policies, and was further exacerbated during the war of destabilization, neo-liberalization and its avatar Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) have led to an increase participation in informal markets and have in general deepened the impoverishment of the participants in the informal economy, most of all, women.