Informality and work: realities of the second-hand car economy in West Africa

• Grant number: 22/01731-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: August 01, 2022
• End date: July 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Urban Sociology
• Agreement: ANR
• Principal Investigator: Bianca Stella Pinheiro de Freire Medeiros
• Grantee: John Oti Amoah
• Host Institution: Centro Brasileiro de Análise e Planejamento (CEBRAP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 20/07160-7 - Global cars: a transnational urban research on vehicle informal economies (Europe, Africa and South America), AP.TEM

Abstract

Realities in the informal economy are changing across the globe, with implications for how we discuss the phenomenon across space. Although recent debates have attempted to demonstrate the linkage between informality and formal economies within the global South but also with the North, there is limited understanding of the interplay across borders. This study draws upon in-depth interviews with key actors across Ghana/West Africa to map the transnational network in supply chain and political disputes on regulation regimes used in the second-hand car economy. Whereas previous literature on second-hand goods focuses on clothing and electronics rather than other second-hand goods, this study attempts to unpack the complex global value chain of second-hand automobiles/spare parts in the context of urban informality and work. Scholarship on second-hand economies offers a critical space for deeper insight into the global value chain, circulation of goods, and urban informality. Using ethnography studies, the study argues for a rethinking of the contestations as well as opportunities for extraction and exploitation among the various actors in the second-hand car economy in West Africa. (AU)