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I found the rich ethnographic detail in this article engaging to look at the range of economic activities available to the 'unemployed youth' p. 434 in Addis Ababa. I found it was especially relevant to consider all social factors in order to build a bigger picture of their situation.

It is interesting to consider the 'social navigation' p, 435 that Di Nunzio explored which I see as navigating the complicated, web of economic opportunities available to the 'unemployed youth' p. 434 in the hope of achieving something better.

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Dua (2015) draws on very detailed ethnographic account and well rendered historical discourses to demonstrate how diya kinships together with risk pooling and credit networks facilitated both the expansion and decline of Somali piracy. The author shows that piracy is essentially a locally rooted phenomenon, as opposed to an issure at mere international and global scale, which is extensively talked about in economics literatures.
I find it particularly interesting where  Dua (2015:513) emphasized the role of livestock in Somali identity and economy and its cross-border and trans-regional circulation. Livestock trade is essential to understand kinship networks such as the diya. Livestock in the majority of pastoralist cultures serves not only as subsistence but also a form of currency, a symbol of wealth and status, a fact that is overlooked in many contemporary discussions.

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In Ethiopia, the rise in education -and consequently in social expectations-, was faced by the reduction in employment opportunities in the public sector due to the impact of neoliberal policies.

In this article, DiNunzio shifts the focus away from the 'unemployed youth', because he considers that it brings only a partial understanding of social differentiation and forms of marginality and exclusion. Instead, he analyses ‘‘the web of networks, interactions, and social relations’’ (437) of what he defines as the street economy. In other words, ‘‘the material, moral, and symbolic economy of exchanges, social relations, identities’’ (435) that his informants participated in, for a better life.

His ethnography focus on men between their mid-20s and mid-30s in Addis Ababa's inner city working as minibus touts, street tourist guides, parking guys, and full-time hustlers. DiNunzio shows how different power dynamics, forms of social differentiations, margination and exclusion are at stake in the informal economy.

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"Indeed, though informal economies are often celebrated for their natural affinity for entrepreneurship, what the Shell Foundation (2005) terms their ‘business DNA’, in practice entrepreneurial subjectivities and the attendant virtues of responsibility, competition, and risk-taking are whetted." (519)
This is a very interesting analysis that demonstrates the blurring of notions of natural entrepreneurial spirit and being forced to work hard due to intolerable economic conditions. MNCs attempt to reify this innate drive for salesmanship and making something of oneself, etc. whereas in reality there is clearly a very particular idea of how young entrepreneurs are expected to conform to their normative prescriptions. It may be true that there is some basic level of biological underpinning that leads humans to improve their economic conditions but that is certainly not to be conflated with such rigid definitions implied by Shell's term of "business DNA"

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These jobs provide stable sources of income, but are far from opening up “avenues” for

social mobility p443

This suggests that economic stability does not necessarily mean one has social mobility. The street actors seemed to able to ‘get by’ and meet their immediate economic needs but not fulfil their long term goals or social aspirations. Stuck in an endless cycle, their marginalization and exclusion were ‘produced and reproduced’

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The conception of remainder in the article reveals the specific mode fo valuation which is vital in the understanding of one particular ‘marginal’ economy. Instead of adopting of logic of a criminalisation of the fuel siphoning practices as the the illicit trades or as a ‘survival’ practice, the article views truck drivers who sold fuel and fuel dealers who bought it produce “an understanding of value that distinguished between “necessary” and “remaindered” shares”(446).

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Dolan and Rajak’s article analyses the impact of BoP (Bottom of Pyramid) strategy in enterprise models, which has spread all over Africa recently. Hereby, they focus specifically on the Catalyst enterprise in Kawangware. While BoP’s key aim is to be inclusive towards all and to eradicate the poverty line, Dolan and Rajak question whether they actually do so or just reinforce this line. What struck me the most about this article was the way that employers at the Catalyst talked about and to the youth of Kawangware and the strategies they used to draw them into their training. The Catalyst director suggested that the youth were “eating away at Kenya’s future, siphoning value from a national project of economic and political renewal” (Dolan & Rajak 2016: 518), justifying why they needed help and training in order to become “job-creators” and not just “job-seekers” (Dolan & Rajak 2016: 515). Generally speaking, the way the training at the Catalyst is described, sounds a bit like a sect to me; very manipulative and telling specific stories, “allegorical parables of self-improvement” (Dolan & Rajak 2016: 520) to draw people into their programme. Catalyst is marketed not as an employment opportunity but as a way to transform one’s life into something better, but only for those who are conversing themselves into an entrepreneur, dressing as one, behaving as one, and selling as one. If they fail, “they have only themselves to blame” (Dolan & Rajak 2016: 521)

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Nunzio describes four different “niches” of the street economy to argue that this is not a livelihood but a pathway into a better form of employment which connects them to broader society (ibid). I found the concept of 'navigation' interesting. There is also an emphasis on marginalisation and exclusion which Nunzio argues is reproduced (2012: 535). Nunzio’s ethnography is interesting because he brings out the nuances of the street economy. It is not simply a collective who operate outside regulation. Indeed, the government and local agencies have opened offices to help people find jobs.

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Edward points out the discourse of ‘business DNA’ which mentioned in the article. I also question the construction of the ‘entrepreneurial-self’ in the project of economic and political renewal. The article not only question "what extent do these schemes deliver meaningful possibilities of inclusion and mobility through market opportunity, or merely the elusive (and highly exclusive) hope of success", but also propose an important examination on the relationship between the ‘job-creator’ and the ‘job-seeker’.

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Responding to Nour:

I find it very interesting that he is shifting away from ‘unemployed youth’ because of the partial understanding it offers of social differentiation and forms of marginality and exclusion. When doubts about the 2005 elections caused demonstrations and riots across the country, the youth’s high unemployment rate was made responsible for such an outbreak. I found it interesting how the governments’ narrative of “unemployment as a synonym for unruliness and lack of discipline” (DiNunzio 2012: 434) had such a vast impact in how the focus of academic research and governmental attention shifted from from street children, beggars and sex workers to the “undisciplined, wild” unemployed youth and I think this article provides us with an understanding of the importance of the street economy, rather than just talking about “the unemployed”.

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In response: I too found the article engaging. The idea of the 'urban youth' (p. 514) is especially interesting as it has been linked in to 'development agenda[s]' (514).

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Nunzio's ethnographic work of unemployed youth in Adisa Ababa is highly interesting as it shed a light on the marginalised youth. In the article, he takes a new approach that other research fails look at and presents the unemployed urban youth in a new light. By focusing on the street economy, Nunzio's article gave us a better understanding of the social differences that exist between the urban unemployed youth and the 'marginality and exclusion that characterize the bottom of Ethiopian urban society and in the capital especially.' (435)

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This piece concerns ‘Hustling’, Social navigation . Exclusion and, Marginality amongst young men in Addi Ababa. Anthropologists have pointed out that the unemployed are often very similar to public sector workers in the extent to which many unemployed appear to be usually relatively highly educated (Krishna eat al 1998). It goes into ethnographic detail, describing the experiences of different men in the ‘street economy’. It was interesting to see how they all had similarities/shared experiences; many of them saw ‘hustling’ as a springboard to a better life but there was obvious ‘Tensions between the immediate necessities of getting by and the social aspirations for a better life’ it concerned ‘the particular configuration of situationality, stability and social mobility which characterises life at the bottom of urban society’ – 443  When trajectories of social mobility were pursued, my informants often encountered processes of remarginalization and forms of exclusion that they individually experienced as an inability to improve their lives.

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This was an interesting piece concerning piracy and economy in the western Indian ocean region. In response to Benny I also I found the role of livestock interesting in this piece. The author highlights how, in his work on livestock marketing in Northern Kenya, Hussein Mahmoud touches on the ‘centrality of trust’ in reducing the risks involved in these cross-border transactions. ‘Specifically, Mahmoud emphasizes trading partnerships often organized along lines of kinship and other modes of alliance that serve “not only [to] curb recurrence of trading risks, but also improve cattle exchange at all levels of the trading chain.” – page 513

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Due to the reduction in job opportunities this made social mobility rare since having a job enabled economic stability. The government failed to mentally challenge the “unemployed youth” leading to them not developing any new skills that could help them progress.
P444 line 15: “the success of the parking guys actually consisted in the regularity of their low income and depended on the unskilled nature of their work-the government schemes failed to open up new kinds of social opportunities” they are mentally repressed due to the neglect of the government.

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The importance of kinship is once again mentioned in the context of the commercial boom in Eastleigh, but I found interesting how this time family ties become only part of the network building, “otherwise business would cease” (342). In commercial activities as big as Eastleigh’s, “trust” cannot rely only on nationality,ethnicity, clan, etc.. I was intrigued by this idea of “trust” and how it was described to go ‘beyond’ the traditionally and stereotypically entrusted community. I enjoyed how the article departed from the idea of trade and economic activity within a particular group and then expanded it alongside the newly globalised economy

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“Hustling is about hope and having some hope of moving up” (443). This article provides an interesting overview of the web of networks and interactions among young men experiencing the social and economic realities of Addis Ababa’s street economy. The four men covered in the article view street hustling as holding better prospects for social mobility than more stable paid jobs, for example as waiters. I was left wondering how realistic these aspirations are and whether street hustling really does represent an avenue to achieving social goals.

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The idea of the Catalyst Vision seemingly aims to amend the issue of use unemployment by targeting young “un and underemployed youth” but in teaching them how to work within an urban frame work this devalues the emphasis on entrepreneurship that would work within the poorer communities, as they are being taught to sell items rather than honing individual skills?

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I too find it funny how in most of these Sub Saharan ethnographies kinship plays a large role in most socio-economic interactions

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Response to Cai & co.
On this point I think it is interesting to link it to Carrier and Lochery's reading, in which they analyse how family relations definitely have a role in economic expansion of individual, but this is only one of many the means for developing an economic activity

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A paper on the birth of ‘Eastleigh’s economic boom’ (348). Deriving from ‘a collapsed [Somali] state and informality’ (334) it is powered by informal transnational networks, between Dubai and Somalia, Somalia and Kenya and diasporic Somali migrants in western countries returning and investing in Eastleigh. This economy becomes informal and likewise is enhanced by ‘positive corruption’ (345) whereby it is able to bypass kenyan taxation, and contribute highly to the kenyan economy. The Somali migrants who have built it therefore see their right to claim state protection.

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"While enterprise solutions proffer the possibility of redeeming the failure to find gainful employ- ment, responsibility for which is individualised, they shift attention from the failure (and profound inequities) of the economic structure in which their targets exercise limited economic agency. The paradox, of course, is that the experience of entrepreneurship may deliver precisely the opposite of what inclusive business implies, reinforcing the fissures between Africa’s redundant urban proletariat and the new swathe of bootstrap capitalists." (527). What this article shows - with the use of interviews and individual case studies - the Catalyst Vision was more of a promise and failure. We see that although it gave them some opportunities the streets didn't offer and somewhat changed their lives. However, what most of these interviews suggested was that the Catalyst did not exactly deliver their promises and these individuals felt they didn't benefit as they thought they would or promised they would.

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In response to Sophie

According to Carrier and Lochery, Eastleigh is an interesting case study of informality because of its link to the expansion and globalisation of the informal economy and its marginalisation by the Kenyan state. The ambiguous relation between Eastleigh and the Kenyan state mentioned by Sophie is particularly complex.

While many Somalis successfully developed trade from informality and displacement, poor infrastructure and insecurity in Eastleigh make Eastleigh businesspeople expect more Kenyan state involvement to protect lives and property. Many Kenyan politicians 􏰀are ‘‘suspicious’’ (346) of Eastleigh because of goods smuggling and corruption.

However, Eastleigh benefits the Kenyan economy in terms of revenue and employment. Although the state loses revenue through corruption, it brings significant revenues ‘‘KRA in the form of tax paid by retailers and wholesalers’’ (346).

Finally, the limits between formality and informality are blurred as ‘‘the networks that have sustained Eastleigh are not so much informal as woven in and out of the remit of state regulation’’ (347).

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Dolan and Rajak’s article deals with the ways in which initiatives (such as the BoP), may draw on the skills and potential assets of the poor, unemployed (in particular youth and women) and those working in the informal sector in order to create new opportunities. Such initiatives aim to ‘redirect ‘natural’ assets – resourcefulness, ingenuity, opportunism and socially embedded webs of economic exchange – into new avenues of job creation and economic renewal’ (516). Those who find themselves at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ are being exposed to newer models of ‘empowerment’ and are being given better entrepreneurial opportunities which in turn helps boost the economy. The youth who are often considered a liability in East Africa and in the continent as a whole, youth unemployment is extremely high and especially as ‘70 per cent of Africa’s urban population lives in slums – around 200 million people – the majority of whom are between the ages of 15 and 24’ (516). However, could these initiatives/agencies and governments be exploiting the youth as often working for such initiatives is ‘frustrating’ and is ‘not even enough to even pay bills’ (526).

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Di Nunzio describes how government initiated cooperatives organize some aspects of the street economy and create jobs in Addis Ababa (443). These 'government employment schemes' for example, the parking guys cooperative, provided stability but no social mobility. They were "extremely successful in reproducing, cementing or even furthering the pre-existing conditions of marginality and social differentiation" (444). It is relevant to ask, what is the purpose of these government schemes? Is is simply a method for the government to gain control over the informal economy? To show that they are providing some type of employment?

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Response to Benny:
"The author shows that piracy is essentially a locally rooted phenomenon, as opposed to an issure at mere international and global scale, which is extensively talked about in economics literatures. "

I think this article pertinently demonstrates the power of international and academic discourse in shaping understandings of different economic structures and patterns. For example, Somali piracy being a threat for the west and those in power has resulted in an incredibly negative global understanding of its roots, means and ends. This article brings light to piracy as a form of work, part of the kidnap and ransom economy, embedded in local economic credit networks. Another example is the global  perception of the informal economy as chaotic, reckless and unordered - falsely constructed by a ignorance of other forms of economic organization that are rooted in social and kinship networks.

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responding to Soraya's post
I too found it surprising to read that many of the unemployed youth, spoken about in this reading, appeared to be relatively highly educated. The author points that this voluntary unemployment is only a choice of the middle class as ‘unemployment was hardly an option’ (435) for their informants, who had to rely on the informal, street economy.

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expanding on Zhanhui:
the notion of the remainder of a commodity (after it has been through the due process of the official commercial channels) offers a way to understand economic activity  "within the gaps of a liberalized economy." (481)
The complex system that is predicated on this notion is described in detail and the author richly illuminates the history of this practice and with interesting deconstructions of semiotic metaphors.

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One thing I found really interesting in this article was the idea of ‘formality’ as a behaviour or appearance as well as ‘formality’ as a description of the market. In the training courses, the participants are told they have to discipline themselves, speak and dress in a particular way that would make them more likely to appear professional in order to successfully sell the products. I wonder if this reveals something about the idea of a market being ‘formal’, whether it suggests that formality of markets is a particular appearance more than anything else.

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Responding to Bela's post, I too am interested to read more about the role of the government in informal economies because it disrupts this notion that informal economies operate completely outside any form of regulation.

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In response to Mathews post, this idea of being economic mobility not being equal to social mobility is something I was constantly thinking of while reading the ethnography of the unemployed youth. The state need to acknowledge how these jobs are a result of systematic problems within the nation and although people can find means in overcoming this social problem, it's the government's responsibility to implement systems that would help overcome this issue.

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The idea of the Catalyst Vision seemingly aims to amend the issue of use unemploy,met by targeting young “un and underemployed youth” but in teaching them how to work within an urban frame work this devalues the emphasis on entrepreneurship that would work within the poorer communities, as they are being taught to sell items rather than honing individual skills?

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The article by Carrier and Lochery expanded on a spectacular case of informality in Eastleigh that derived after “Somalia’s state collapse[d]” (334). Two interesting points within the article that stand out, first, the reference of these Somalis as refugees, and how alongside them “came ‘pieces’ of politics, economics, culture, and social relations from back home, and much capital that would drive investment and radically transform the urban landscape” (336). Creating a call of rights and protection by these migrant in a corrupt state. Secondly, Is the transnational dynamic of such informality that exists globally. In other words, we see this informality powered by informal transnational networks that exists between Somalia, Kenya and Dubai.

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In response to Khalissa, I agree with your concern as to whether these initiatives are exploiting the youth. In fact at the start of the article the authors stated that urban youths “are the subject of contradictory moral discourses that paint them as both the obstacle and panacea to development” (514). Furthermore, mention of how these initiatives are often not entirely beneficial since they do not help pay bills showcases a flaw in the initiative. Dolan and Rajak have mentioned that these BoP initiatives are “increasingly seen as a way to draw the continent’s poor into new networks of global capitalism” (514). However that does not directly mean this benefits these youths, and the reader notes such failures towards the end of the article, where the authors explain the paradox which “is that the experience of entrepreneurship may deliver precisely the opposite of what inclusive business implies, reinforcing the fissures between Africa’s redundant urban proletariat and the new swathe of bootstrap capitalists (527).

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In response to Rebecca,
I also find it interesting that 'formality' is defined by ways of behaviour, manners of speaking, and experiences of trainning. Doesn't that cognate to Bourdieu's concept of 'habitus'? Isn't market itself a special 'locality' which generates a specific way of 'being-there'?