Informal Economies and the Politics of Survival and Accumulation

Gracia Clark’s work on Onions Are My Husband offered an in-depth analysis of the intricacies by which Ghanaian market women organize, manage, protect, and thereby, dominate their trade. By zeroing in on the Kumasi Central Market, the second largest in the country, Clark was able to convey the bustling dynamism that encompasses the inner workings of the Ghana’s market systems. From their layout to their base operations, as well as the barriers that traders had to overcome and the the significance of collegial relationships. “The pattern of collegial and customer relations in Kumasi Central Market does not permit traders to dominate others, not does it permit other to dominate them” (Clark 246). Clark’s lens also gave readers a basis for understanding the difference between formal and informal economy, plus the significance of the latter in contemporary Ghana. “The same dynamics that prevent traders from putting each other out of business preserve some measure of autonomy at the boundaries of the marketplace system. Multiple channels within the system protect nontraders from exploitation by traders, while customer and colleague relations give them a basis for some access to traders’ capital, information, and other resources” (Clark 247). The term ‘formal economy’ is often applied to business structures that interact largely with the global markets and trade. These businesses are more likely to be regulated or change in concordance based on the fluctuating values and the state of their model in relation to other key players, like the government or foreign interests. They are versatile and competitive on a worldly scale. Examples would be massive conglomerates or rising businesses that have developed stakes in advantaging interests other than their own with the ultimate goal of personal gain. Formal economy may be regarded as the face of business, or at least, how the average person tends to understand business. “The structure of relations between other national economic sectors, especially farmers and industrial producers, set limits to the influence of the the market place system as a whole, but reproduces a stead demand for its services” (Clark 246). Kumasi Central Market, the traders that work there – and of course – the market women, work within a model that may be characterized as informal economy. “Traders have largely succeeded in maintaining their fiscal independence from outsiders and each other. They prefer trading on their own accounts at however small a level to more dependent relations” (Clark 246). Their inner workings are more so localized, their operations and resources perceived as rudimentary in comparison to the entities working within the formal economy, but informal models can still function like sprawling enterprises that exist by virtue of multiplicity – like the markets. “One way to begin understanding Kumasi Central Market, an exceptionally complex location, is to consider it as a mosaic of distinguishable subsystems assembled but only partly integrated into a single common system. Divisions within it are defined by commodity, by geographical location, and by commercial technique (such as unit of sale)” (Clark 6). While businesses that partake in informal economy are less likely to participate in global trade, they are still incredibly significant in terms of the health of contemporary Ghana. “They do not depend on outside capital; on the other hand, they have very little access to public or private capital except from other traders. With few exceptions, they have enough capital to employ themselves, but rarely enough to employ others… They gain access to economies of scale more often through group activity than from joining or founding enlarged single enterprises” (Clark 246). Informal economy participants are individuals who facilitate the direct transfer of goods from natural sources to the people in their locality. They are often members of the very community that they serve and often continue working within the same area, within the same spot, offering the same services for long periods – often turning this specified system into a family enterprise. “Commodity-specialized retail sections dominate the market’s central core of close-packed lines of stall within an encircling wall with locked gates and serve as landmarks within it… Any single commodity or set of commodities sold in sufficient volume in the market, such as tomatoes or grains with beans, has one of these concentrated retail areas. The easy price comparisons and substantial quantities of goods available there make these locations attractive both to consumes and to buyers for resale, despite their congestion” (Clark 7). Overall, Clark’s look into the structure of the Kumasi Central Market and Ghana’s market women contextualized the notion and solidified the significance of informal economy structures within contemporary Ghana. The women of the market have spent generations proving themselves to be savvy, determined, and powerful in ways that supersede the confines of their trade. “Assessing market women’s capacity for social action combined assessing how valuable the market was to traders in others struggles and how valuable other resources were to them as traders… The specific relations that Kumasi women traders drew upon to accumulate or to survive included family and ethnic relations, international and regional relations, and national politics, as well as marketplace relations” (Clark 26). On the basis of the value they provide and the relationships they have fortified, the market women have consistently managed to not only survive, but ultimately bounce back from sociopolitical and economic pitfalls and emerge as substantial and dominant sociopolitical and economic leaders themselves.

Works Cited