IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/revape/v30y2003i95p57-75.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Back Door to Globalisation? Structural Adjustment, Globalisation & Transborder Trade in West Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Kate Meagher

Abstract

Neo-liberal economic reforms were widely expected to rein in Africa's unofficial transborder trade through liberalisation and closer integration into the global economy. Instead of disappearing in the face of structural adjustment and globalisation, however, West African transborder trading systems have been restructured and globalised. This article analyses how the West African experience of economic restructuring has led to an expansion and deepening of unofficial trade, as well as the globalisation of its activities. A clear understanding of this process has been blurred by the ideological manipulation of perspectives on informal economic activity by proponents of the neo-liberal reforms. By means of a deconstruction of populist analyses and more recent narratives of criminalisation, this article traces the contemporary evolution of transborder trade. The conclusion reached is that, while transborder trading structures represent important institutional resources for economic development, they are structurally incapable of integrating West Africa into the global economy in the absence of an appropriate regulatory framework.

Suggested Citation

  • Kate Meagher, 2003. "A Back Door to Globalisation? Structural Adjustment, Globalisation & Transborder Trade in West Africa," Review of African Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(95), pages 57-75, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:revape:v:30:y:2003:i:95:p:57-75
    DOI: 10.1080/03056240308374
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03056240308374
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03056240308374?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Meagher, Kate, 2022. "Crisis narratives and the African paradox: African informal economies, COVID-19 and the decolonization of social policy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 117263, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    2. Howson, Cynthia, 2013. "Adverse Incorporation and Microfinance among Cross-Border Traders in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 199-208.
    3. Adu, Raymond & Litsios, Ioannis & Baimbridge, Mark, 2022. "ECOWAS single currency: Prospective effects on trade," Journal of International Money and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    4. Kate Meagher, 2018. "Cannibalizing the Informal Economy: Frugal Innovation and Economic Inclusion in Africa," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(1), pages 17-33, January.
    5. Ebenezer Owusu-Sekyere, 2019. "Creative individuals, “Kaya Bola” exceptionalism and sustainable development in twenty-first century Ghana," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 9(1), pages 1-17, December.
    6. Kayenat Kabir & Uris Lantz C. Baldos & Thomas W. Hertel, 2023. "The new Malthusian challenge in the Sahel: prospects for improving food security in Niger," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 15(2), pages 455-476, April.
    7. Lukman Raimi & Hassan Yusuf, 2020. "A Critical Discourse of EI and CA in Emerging Economies: The Place of Nigeria Within the Global Innovation Ecosystems," Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Emerging Economies, Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India, vol. 6(2), pages 295-314, July.
    8. Kate Meagher, 2012. "The Strength of Weak States? Non-State Security Forces and Hybrid Governance in Africa," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 43(5), pages 1073-1101, September.
    9. Gardner, Leigh, 2015. "The curious incident of the franc in the Gambia: exchange rate instability and imperial monetary systems in the 1920s," Financial History Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 22(3), pages 291-314, December.
    10. Kate Meagher, 2022. "Crisis Narratives and the African Paradox: African Informal Economies, COVID‐19 and the Decolonization of Social Policy," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 53(6), pages 1200-1229, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:revape:v:30:y:2003:i:95:p:57-75. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/CREA20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.