Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction : the changing politics of informality : collective organizing, alliances and scales of engagement / Ilda Lindell -- Seen but not heard : urban voice and citizenship for street traders / Alison Brown and Michal Lyons -- The politics of vulnerability : exit, voice and capture in three Nigerian informal manufacturing clusters / Kate Meagher -- Women leaders and the sense of power : clientelism and citizenship at the Dantokpa market in Cotonou, Benin / Ebbe Prag -- Alliances across the formal-informal divide : South African debates and Nigerian experiences / Gunilla Andrae and Björn Beckman -- Self-organized informal workers and trade union initiatives in Malawi : organizing the informal economy / Ignasio Malizani Jimu -- Moments of resistance : the struggle against informalization in Cape Town / David Christoffer Jordhus-Lier -- The possibilities for collective organization of informal port workers in Tema, Ghana / Owusu Boampong -- The 'China challenge' : the global dimensions of activism and the informal economy in Dakar / Suzanne Scheld -- Passport, please : the Cross-Border Traders Association in Zambia / Wilma S. Nchito and Karen Tranberg Hansen -- Informal workers in Kenya and transnational organizing : networking and leveraging resources / Winnie V. Mitullah.