From Sectors to Circuits: Re‐Describing Senegambian In/Formal Practices in Europe, and Beyond

Joris Schapendonk and Marieke Ekenhorst

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2020, vol. 111, issue 5, 705-717

Abstract: While earlier accounts approach the informal economy as a sign of underdevelopment, particularly in the Global South, recent studies tend to re‐frame informal economic practices by acknowledging how it allows various actors to create spaces to manoeuvre. In this context, scholars emphasise the multiple linkages between formal and informal economic domains. To push this notion of intersected practices further, we move away from the notion of the ‘informal sector’ – as a domain with clear demarcations and introduce the notion of in/formal circuits. The latter highlights the multiple interrelations between activities and fluid geographies involved. From this starting point we analyse the socio‐economic activities of Senegalese and Gambian migrants living in Europe. Based on ethnographic fieldwork that started in Barcelona but also involved other places, we illustrate the ways they navigate in/formal circuits and the extent to which these navigations come with mobility within Europe, and beyond.

Date: 2020
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