The basket of fish and the mobile phone. When BOP innovations encounter informal market arrangements
Résumé
This research stems from a program of research on non-profit and businesses partnerships involved in the development of innovative products/services to fight against poverty (Cholez & Trompette, 2013; Karnani, 2009; Prahalad, 2004). The presentation describes (micro)economic circuits in the informal economy of emerging countries, where market equipment and technologies are much less proliferate and sophisticated. In order to tackle the issue of "re-agencing" markets, the inquiry traces the socio-technical agencements of small production and trading micro-networks: what are the existing 'agencies' associated with the local economic rationalities (Lave, 1988) and the relational configurations of these informal commercial circuits (Zelizer, 2004) ? The fieldwork has been carried out on the East Coast of Madagascar, shadowing a set of economic circuits connecting rural and peri-urban areas to urban markets. Among these diverse circuits, the analysis draw on two well-established informal circuits: the second-hand car battery (sale, reparation, recharge) used by rural households for light, leisure like music and television and for the recharge of mobile phones; and the fish (game and sea fish) circuit that supplies urban consumption and the restaurant industry everyday.
Loading...