Protecting Environment or People? Pitfalls and Merits of Informal Labour in the Congolese Recycling Industry

Clément Longondjo Etambakonga () and Julia Roloff ()
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Clément Longondjo Etambakonga: Rennes School of Business
Julia Roloff: Rennes School of Business

Journal of Business Ethics, 2020, vol. 161, issue 4, No 6, 815-834

Abstract: Abstract Despite the fact that informal labour is a widespread phenomenon, the business ethics literature tends to describe it as a problem that needs to be overcome, rather than contemplating its merits. Informal labour is linked to poor working conditions, low-income and insufficient protection. However, it is also a survival strategy and upholds essential services, such as waste collection and recycling. Through the lens of postmodern ethics, we analyse 45 interviews with formal and informal waste management workers in Kinshasa. The study explores the functioning and limits of recycling services in a metropolis, focusing on the experience of African workers and entrepreneurs. A complex picture of ethical challenges and individual business and survival strategies emerges from the analysis. Our findings demonstrate that labour decisions of voiceless people cannot be reduced to being rational or desperate choices, but that they reflect a careful elaboration of currently available options and strategies for the future. The study contributes to our understanding of entrepreneurship in a post-conflict context, the role of informal labour in the functioning of formal businesses in Africa and the contribution of postmodern theory to the study of businesses in non-Western societies.

Keywords: Informal sector; Informal labour; Recycling; Waste management; African entrepreneurship; Postmodern ethics; Post-conflict (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10551-019-04339-w

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