BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Sabre//Sabre VObject 4.5.8//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/Zurich X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/Zurich TZURL:http://tzurl.org/zoneinfo/Europe/Zurich BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0200 TZNAME:CEST DTSTART:19810329T020000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=-1SU END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0200 TZOFFSETTO:+0100 TZNAME:CET DTSTART:19961027T030000 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=10;BYDAY=-1SU END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:news4663@zasb.unibas.ch DTSTAMP;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251203T155126 DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251017T161500 SUMMARY:Charles D. Piot: "Is the African Informal Economy Decolonial?" DESCRIPTION:There is a large literature on informal economies in Africa\, a continent which remains the most informalized region in the world today —with\, in many countries\, 80-90% of people working informally.  Much of this literature\, especially in policy studies\, retains a strong bias against informal modes of work and remains analytically distanced from the practices it purports to study. In order to add nuance to this literature and address some of its shortcomings\, I have been engaged in an ethnogra phic study collecting in-depth data from informal entrepreneurs in two Afr ican countries\, Togo and Kenya. This study draws on key themes and debate s in the informal literature in designing a project that enables an empiri cally-based theorization of burgeoning African informality while paying sp ecial attention to vernacular economic understandings and practices. \\r\ \nWhile describing some of this study’s findings—which overturn severa l apple carts in the informal literature and gesture toward the value of a more qualitative\, anthropological approach—this presentation introduce s a decolonial reading of informality and suggests that the persistence an d ubiquity of informal work on the continent represents a critique of colo nial modernity and an alternative to capitalist labor & accumulation pract ices. The paper also asks: what is the nature of critique that is unnamed as such and originates in a site of everyday practice?\\r\\nCharles D. Pio t is professor of Cultural Anthropology & African and African American Stu dies at Duke University. His research discusses the political economy and history of rural West Africa. His first book\, Remotely Global: Village Mo dernity in West Africa (1999)\, attempted to re-theorize a classic out-of- the-way place as within the modern and global. His next book\, Nostalgia f or the Future: West Africa after the Cold War (2010)\, explored shifts in Togolese political culture during the 1990s\, a time when the NGOs and cha rismatic churches took over the biopolitical\, reorganizing social and pol itical life in the absence of the state. His most recent book\, The Fixer: Visa Lottery Chronicles (2019)\, is about Togolese who apply for and atte mpt to game the US Diversity Visa Lottery. He has begun research focusing on the return of Togolese from the diaspora to West Africa. X-ALT-DESC:

There is a large literature on informal economies in Africa\, a continent which remains the most informalized region in the world today —with\, in many countries\, 80-90% of people working informally. \; Much of this literature\, especially in policy studies\, retains a strong bias against informal modes of work and remains analytically distanced fro m the practices it purports to study. In order to add nuance to this liter ature and address some of its shortcomings\, I have been engaged in an eth nographic study collecting in-depth data from informal entrepreneurs in tw o African countries\, Togo and Kenya. This study draws on key themes and d ebates in the informal literature in designing a project that enables an e mpirically-based theorization of burgeoning African informality while payi ng special attention to vernacular economic understandings and practices.& nbsp\;

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While describing some of this study’s findings—which ov erturn several apple carts in the informal literature and gesture toward t he value of a more qualitative\, anthropological approach—this presentat ion introduces a decolonial reading of informality and suggests that the p ersistence and ubiquity of informal work on the continent represents a cri tique of colonial modernity and an alternative to capitalist labor &\; accumulation practices. The paper also asks: what is the nature of critiqu e that is unnamed as such and originates in a site of everyday practice?\n

Charles D. Piot is professor of Cultural Anthropol ogy &\; African and African American Studies at Duke University. His re search discusses the political economy and history of rural West Africa. H is first book\, Remotely Global: Village Modernity in West Africa (1999)\, attempted to re-theorize a classic out-of-the-way place as withi n the modern and global. His next book\, Nostalgia for the Future: Wes t Africa after the Cold War (2010)\, explored shifts in Togolese poli tical culture during the 1990s\, a time when the NGOs and charismatic chur ches took over the biopolitical\, reorganizing social and political life i n the absence of the state. His most recent book\, The Fixer: Visa Lot tery Chronicles (2019)\, is about Togolese who apply for and attempt to game the US Diversity Visa Lottery. He has begun research focusing on t he return of Togolese from the diaspora to West Africa.

DTEND;TZID=Europe/Zurich:20251017T180000 END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR