A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Mobile Phone Theft, Resale, and Violence in Dar es Salaam (2022)

Stark, L. (2022). Mobile Phone Theft, Resale, and Violence in Dar es Salaam. In L. Stark, & A. B. Teppo (Eds.), Power and Informality in Urban Africa Ethnographic Perspectives (pp. 141-166). Zed Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350237599.ch-7

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Stark, Laura

Parent publication: Power and Informality in Urban Africa Ethnographic Perspectives

Parent publication editors: Stark, Laura; Teppo, Annika Björnsdotter

ISBN: 978-1-7869-9345-8

eISBN: 978-1-7869-9346-5

Publication year: 2022

Pages range: 141-166

Number of pages in the book: 264

Publisher: Zed Books

Place of Publication: London

Publication country: United Kingdom

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350237599.ch-7

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Publication is parallel published (JYX): https://jyx.jyu.fi/handle/123456789/83956

Abstract

In Africa’s towns and cities more than those on any other continent, governments seem unable to ensure security for their citizens. The majority of urban residents find themselves ‘entangled within power dynamics that position them at the city’s margins, literally and figuratively’ (Myers 2011) . Although urban informality is defined by its ‘illegality’ from the perspective of regulatory elites (Potts 2007) , some informal activities are viewed as predatory or harmful by the urban residents who must deal with them in their everyday lives. These include bribery by officials and service providers, dispossession of inheritance by relatives, brokerage fraud, extortion by local government officials, and the harassment carried out by security guards against street vendors. Taken together, these practices constitute both obstacles to accessing resources by the poor and impediments to residents’ abilities to keep their hard-won resources. In the city I studied – Dar es Salaam –...

Keywords: towns and cities; urbanisation; urban population; safety and security; violence (activity); inequality; power (societal objects); exercise of power; socioeconomic status; socioeconomic factors; social problems; poverty; thieves; cell phones; public servants; bribery; inheritances; fraud; anthropology; ethnography; urban sociology

Free keywords: Africa

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2022

JUFO rating: 2