Resilience and Resistance in Informal Worker Discourses

Abstract

The study examined the resilience practices of street hawkers in Accra, Ghana, using the Communication Theory of Resilience (CTR) and liquid organizing framework. We utilized a critical ethnographic approach, which included field observation and in-depth semi-structured interviews with 31 participants. We found that street hawkers construct resilience processes to neutralize the constant, multiple, and simultaneous economic crises with which they are faced. We also found that street hawkers navigated economic uncertainty by transgressing local bylaws and defying city law enforcement using liquid organizing techniques. We conclude that examining individuals’ micro-level resilience strategies, achieved through liquid organizing techniques, allows us to theorize about macro-level issues like neoliberal economics.

Keywords

informal sector resilience liquid organizing neoliberalism decolonial Ghana

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Accra Metropolitan Assembly . (2019). Local government bulletin. https://ama.gov.gh/doc/bye-laws.pdf

Adaawen

(2011). Street hawking and urban space regulation: The case of street hawkers in Accra, Ghana. [Master’s thesis. Norwegian University of Science and Technology]. NTNU Open. https://ntnuopen.ntnu.no/ntnu-xmlui/handle/11250/265375.

Akuoko

K. O.

Ofori-Dua

Forkuor

J. B.

(2013). Women making ends meet: Street hawking in Kumasi, challenges and constraints. Michigan Sociological Review, 27, 25–43.

Alacovska

(2019). “Keep hoping, keep going”: Towards a hopeful sociology of creative work. The Sociological Review, 67(5), 1118–1136. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026118779014

Alacovska

Langevang

Steedman

(2021). The work of hope: Spiritualizing, hustling and waiting in the creative industries in Ghana. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 53(4), 619–637. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X20962810

Amo-Agyemang

(2021). Decolonising the discourse on resilience. International Journal of African Renaissance Studies: Multi-Inter- and Transdisciplinarity, 16(1), 4–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/18186874.2021.1962725

Artz

(2001). Critical ethnography for communication studies: Dialogue and social justice in service learning. Southern Journal of Communication, 66(3), 239–250. https://doi.org/10.1080/10417940109373202

Asiedu

A. B.

Agyei-Mensah

(2008). Traders on the run: Activities of street vendors in the accra metropolitan area. Ghana Norwegian Journal of Geography, 62(3), 191–202. https://doi.org/10.1080/00291950802335806

Awanyo

Attua

E. M.

(2018). A paradox of three decades of neoliberal economic reforms in Ghana: A tale of economic growth and uneven regional development. African Geographical Review, 37(3), 173–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/19376812.2016.1245152

10.

Baah-Boateng

Vanek

(2020) Informal workers in Ghana: A statistical snapshot (21). WIEGO Statistical Brief No. https://www.wiego.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/WIEGO_Statistical_Brief_N21_0.pdf

11.

Berger

Luckmann

(2016). The social construction of reality. In Longhofer

Winchester

(Eds.), Social theory re-wired (pp. 110–122). Routledge.

12.

Bičáková

Cortes

G. M.

Foley

Mazza

McHenry

(2025). Unpacking the countercyclicality of post-secondary enrollment in the United States. CERGE-EI Working Papers wp795, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education– Economics Institute.

13.

Braun

Clarke

(2024). Thematic analysis. In Maggino

(Ed.), Encyclopedia of quality of life and well-being research (pp. 7187–7193). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17299-1_3470

14.

Butler

(1997). The psychic life of power: Theories in subjection. Stanford University Press.

15.

Buzzanell

P. M.

(2010). Resilience: Talking, resisting and imagining new normalcies into being. Journal of Communication, 60(1), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2009.01469.x

16.

Buzzanell

P. M.

(2017). Communication theory of resilience: Enacting adaptive-transformative processes when families experience loss and disruption. In Braithwaite

Suter

Floyd

(Eds.), Engaging theories in family communication (2nd ed., pp. 98–109). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315204321-9

17.

Buzzanell

P. M.

(2019). Communication theory of resilience in everyday talk, interactions, and network structures. In Wilson

S. R.

Smith

S. W.

(Eds.), Reflections on interpersonal communication research (pp. 65–88). Cognella Academic Publishing.

18.

Buzzanell

P. M.

(2021). Designing feminist resilience. In Eckert

Bachmann

(Eds.), Reflections on feminist communication and media scholarship (pp. 43–58). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003102786-3

19.

Charmaz

(2006). Constructing grounded theory: A practical guide through qualitative analysis: Sage.

20.

Clarke

Braun

(2017). Thematic analysis. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 12(3), 297–298.

21.

Collard

N. J.

(2021). “Things should be better”—Immobility, labour and the negotiation of hope amongst young Ghanaian craftsmen. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 39(5), 810–826. https://doi.org/10.1177/02637758211001382

22.

Cruz

J. M.

(2017). Invisibility and visibility in alternative organizing: A communicative and cultural model. Management Communication Quarterly, 31(4), 614–639. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318917725202

23.

Cruz

J. M.

Sodeke

C. U.

(2021). Debunking eurocentrism in organizational communication theory: Marginality and liquidities in postcolonial contexts. Communication Theory, 31(3), 528–548. https://doi.org/10.1093/ct/qtz038

24.

Fereday

Muir-Cochrane

(2006). Demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: A hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 5(1), 80–92. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500107

25.

Foucault

(1977). A preface to transgression. In Bouchard

D. F.

Bouchard

D. F.

Simon

(Eds.), Language, counter-memory, practice: Selected essays and interviews (pp. 29–52). Cornell University Press.

26.

Ghana Statistical Service . (2023). Ghana annual household income and expenditure survey: Quarter 3 2022 labor statistics report. Ghana Statistical Service.

27.

Gill

Orgad

(2018). The amazing bounce-backable woman: Resilience and the psychological turn in neoliberalism. Sociological Research Online, 23(2), 477–495. https://doi.org/10.1177/1360780418769673

28.

Glynn

Cupples

(2024). Stories of decolonial resilience. Cultural Studies, 38(4), 537–566. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2022.2144398

29.

Hummel

(2021). Why informal workers organize: Contentious politics, enforcement and the state. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780192847812.001.0001

30.

Humphreys

(2009). Discourse as ideology: Neoliberalism and the limits of international forest policy. Forest Policy and Economics, 11(5–6), 319–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forpol.2008.08.008

31.

International Labor Organization (ILO) . (2018). Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture (3rd ed.). International Labor Organization.

32.

Karikari

Wood

(2024). Working in precarity: Examining mainstream discourses about street hawking in Ghana. Communication, Culture & Critique, 18(1), 90–97. https://doi.org/10.1093/ccc/tcae043

33.

Kilu

R. H.

Alacovska

Sanda

M. A.

(2024). Spirituality in creative work: How craft entrepreneurs in Ghana cope with precarity. Cultural Trends, 33(5), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2024.2404627

34.

Konadu-Agyemang

(2000). The best of times and the worst of times: Structural adjustment programs and uneven development in Africa: The case of Ghana. The Professional Geographer, 52(3), 469–483. https://doi.org/10.1111/0033-0124.00239

35.

Lindlof

T. R.

Taylor

B. C.

(2017). Qualitative communication research methods. Sage Publications.

36.

Long

Marshall-McKelvey

Matter

M. M.

(2024). Material precarity, performative imperative, and burnout from resilience: Surfacing the dark side of resilience laboring in women’s entrepreneurial stories. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 52(2), 179–198. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2024.2313126

37.

Merriam

S. B.

Johnson-Bailey

Lee

M. Y.

Kee

Ntseane

Muhamad

(2001). Power and positionality: Negotiating insider/outsider status within and across cultures. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 20(5), 405–416. https://doi.org/10.1080/02601370120490

38.

Namatovu

Dawa

Adewale

Mulira

(2018). Religious beliefs and entrepreneurial behaviours in Africa: A case study of the informal sector in Uganda. Africa Journal of Management, 4(3), 259–281. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2018.1516939

39.

Ngunjiri

F. W.

Hernandez

K. A. C.

Chang

(2010). Living autoethnography: Connecting life and research. Journal of Research Practice, 6(1), Article E1. https://jrp.icaap.org/index.php/jrp/article/view/241.

40.

Nwankwo

Gbadamosi

Ojo

(2012). Religion, spirituality and entrepreneurship: The church as entrepreneurial space among British Africans. Society and Business Review, 7(2), 149–167. https://doi.org/10.1108/17465681211237619

41.

Palmer

Caldas

(2015). Critical ethnography. In King

Lai

Y.-J.

May

(Eds.), Research methods in language and education (pp. 1–12). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-02329-8_28-1

42.

Pargament

K. I.

(2001). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice: Guilford Press.

43.

Paris

P. J.

(1995). The spirituality of African peoples: The search for a common moral discourse. Fortress Press.

44.

Parsons

Brickell

(2021). The spirit in the machine: Towards a spiritual geography of debt bondage and labour (im)mobility in Cambodian brick kilns. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 46(1), 44–58. https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12393

45.

Pauwelussen

(2016). Community as network: Exploring a relational approach to social resilience in coastal Indonesia. Maritime Studies, 15(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40152-016-0041-5

46.

Pogue

A. L.

(2002). Communicating identity: Communication processes in the development of group identity through congregational worship rituals (doctoral dissertation, University of Oklahoma). University of Oklahoma Graduate College.

47.

Reid

Roumpi

O’Leary-Kelly

A. M.

(2015). Spirited women: The role of spirituality in the work lives of female entrepreneurs in Ghana. Africa Journal of Management, 1(3), 264–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322373.2015.1062710

48.

Sparks

D. L.

Barnett

S. T.

(2010). The informal sector in Sub-Saharan Africa: Out of the shadows to foster sustainable employment and equity? International Business & Economics Research Journal, 9(5), 563. https://doi.org/10.19030/iber.v9i5.563

49.

Starks

Trinidad

S. B.

(2007). Choose your method: A comparison of phenomenology, discourse analysis and grounded theory. Qualitative Health Research, 17(10), 1372–1380. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732307307031

50.

Statista . (2023). Population density in Ghana in 2010 and 2021, by region. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1275577/population-density-by-region-in-ghana/

51.

Tracy

S. J.

(2013). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Wiley-Blackwell.

52.

Tracy

S. J.

(2020). Qualitative research methods: Collecting evidence, crafting analysis, communicating impact. Wiley Blackwell.

53.

Vanderveer

(2019). Pursuing equity: How women academics are challenging gender norms and (re) shaping university culture in Ghana (Master’s thesis). Simon Fraser University.

54.

Van 't Wout

(2018) Entrepreneurs by the grace of God: Life and work of seamstresses in Bolgatanga, Ghana (African Studies Collection) (68): African Studies Centre.

55.

Zhao

(2020). Explicating the social constructionist perspective on crisis communication and crisis management research: A review of communication and business journals. Journal of Public Relations Research, 32(3–4), 98–119. https://doi.org/10.1080/1062726x.2020.1802732