The poverty and dramatic alteration in geographical composition of African cities have been associated with rapid urbanisation, the growth of the informal economy and migration. The latter has separated individuals from long-established social and kinship networks, and from familiar livelihood strategies. The sustainable livelihoods approach views social capital as one of the poor's most important assets in managing their lives. This paper asks four central questions. (1) Does the creation of new, urban forms of social capital, depend upon and deplete inherited forms? (2) Is social capital deliberately created or is it a by-product of sociability? (3) What are its functions in supporting the livelihoods of informal traders? (4) Is there a gender dimension to the strategies adopted? The paper draws on interviews with 124 traders in 2 Nairobi markets, and on key-informant interviews. Principal findings are that, whilst traders initially draw heavily on existing inherited social capital, they deliberately create and adapt their networks, opportunistically building relationships of trust in the marketplace which enable them to survive. The pace of change is different in different economic milieux. Women and men adopt different strategies to achieve similar ends. Conclusions are drawn for social capital theory and policy.
Urban growth has been accompanied by the development of bimodal labour markets and increasing inequalities in both North and South. In Southern cities, many of the poor have turned to the informal sector, in particular to street trade. This has resulted in a multiplicity of urban conflicts and has led to pressure on urban managers to undertake formalisation, for which an increasingly developmental approach has been advocated. Nevertheless, for traders, the formalisation of street trade has very uneven outcomes. The starting-point for this article is the premise that not enough is known about the social fabric upon which trading careers depend. Adopting sustainable livelihoods as a conceptual framework and drawing on social capital theory, four questions are addressed. How do trading careers survive over time? Are there differences in the survival strategies for which social capital is employed among traders operating in different political, cultural and socioeconomic contexts? In the new processes of urbanisation, are the old relationships on which social capital is based, simply lost in the new, or are traditional networks and structures adapted? Finally, what policy conclusions should be drawn to inform urban management practices as they relate to trade formalisation? The primary findings are that marketplace social capital is increasingly important to traders' economic capital. However, inherited ties, although they diminish in importance, continue to be valuable and often serve as the basis for the development of contingent ties. Implications are discussed for urban management and planning practice, for planning theory and for social capital theory.
A large burden of mental ill health among young people was found; this requires urgent interventions and more research on the mechanisms which link mental health and violence.
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