Mary Njeri Kinyanjui

Vyama

Institutions of Hope - Ordinary People's Market Coordination & Society Organization Alternatives

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

This book makes the case for informal sector institutions in development theory. Through practical examples and interviews conducted in Kenya, the author captures how ordinary people organize themselves to meet daily economic and development challenges. The author traces how ordinary people (wananchi) use non- mainstream mechanisms in the form vyama (social groups) to enable individual, group and community development. The book offers insights into the evolution of vyama (institutions of hope) and the role these institutions continue to play in realizing economic growth: wealth creation and distribution; investments, social protection; and general community development. The work shows how, despite historical disruptions, modernization and neo-liberal policies, ordinary people creatively borrow from tradition. In the process, they use collective mechanisms for resource mobilization, investment, risk-sharing and shared gains for the common good. The author offers pointers into the future and how the chama concept can become mainstream in a people's economic development. What others say "The analysis is rigorous. It is highly original, emotive, and an excellent piece of work. It makes a major contribution to our knowledge of the proto-proletariat and the informal sector in the developing world. - How the author beautifully weaves anecdotes from classic al African novels into her analysis to reinforce her argument makes this work distinctive and unique." - Professor MBK Darkoh, University of Botswana "This book is based on real life cases in an area that most scholars have not ventured into. It is a major addition of new findings in the body of knowledge. The presentation is clear, understandable and would appeal to most readers." -Paul Kamau, PhD, Senior Research Fellow, University of Nairobi "The strength of this book is the way it has managed to present the lives of the ordinary people as not hopeless, but rather the base where future development for Africa could be emerging. The book starts from the grassroots and the development actions and innovations taking place there based on the needs as experienced by the ordinary people, rather than the technical fixes of development experts that follow the books rather than the actual needs of the people being developed." - Professor Beth Maina Ahlberg, PhD, Professor of International Health, Uppsala University "This book demonstrates how ordinary citizens have discovered the power in tapping into social relations and are proactively solving their own socio-political and economic challenges. It calls for the incorporation of the ordinary citizen in development planning with a view of enabling them to receive value from and add value to the globalisation and integration process. For anyone who is interested to see Africa play an important role in the global agenda, this is not a book to be ignored." -- Josephat Juma, Managing Editor, The African Executive magazine.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Nsemia Inc.
• Seitenzahl: 106
• Erscheinungstermin: 9. Juli 2012
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 6mm
• Gewicht: 167g
• ISBN-13: 9781926906249
• ISBN-10: 1926906241
• Artikelnr.: 36150828

Autorenporträt

Mary Njeri Kinyanjui is a writer, researcher, teacher and volunteer community organiser. She is a firm believer in social and economic justice and self-reliance. She holds a PhD in Geography from Fitzwilliam College at the University of Cambridge in the UK and is a senior research fellow at the University of Nairobi's Institute for Development Studies. At the time of writing, she was a visiting associate at the Five College Womens' Studies Research Center in Mount Holyoke, Massachusetts. She has researched economic informality and small businesses, with particular focus on the role of grassroots and indigenous institutions, as well as gender, trade justice and peasant organisations, in the organisation of economic behaviour. Her current research is on the positioning of women peasants, artisans and traders in the global economy. Her publications include Women and the Informal Economy in Urban Africa (Zed) and Vyama Institutions of Hope: Ordinary People's Market Coordination and Society Organization (Nsemia).