Marginalised Groups’ Survival in an Informal Sector in Tanzania: An Examination of Networking Strategies among Touts ‘working’ at Bus Terminals in Dar es salaam City
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Date
2020-12
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Tanzania Journal of Sociology
Abstract
For a prolonged time, bus passengers condemn the touts in
bus stands as distressing individuals. This perception is,
being challenged by strong criticism, especially where the
unemployment problem in the formal sector is rapidly
increasing and poverty in most developing nations is
extensively growing. Hence, making people choose informal
jobs as the case of touts is apparent. Some scholars perceive
the informal sector as a source of living and survival for the
unemployed and young people not in the formal job.
However, little is known about how touts as marginalised
individuals survive in an informal sector setting such as bus
terminals, where there are multiple working challenges.
Primarily, this is due to data limitations about touts’ survival
strategies in informal job. This research paper examines the
networking strategies employed by touts in selected bus
terminals - Temeke, Ubungo and Kimara in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania to survive in the informal sector. The findings
indicate that touts working in bus terminals are among the
impoverished groups in the country. Touts’ economic
survival in such an unsecured informal sector depends on the
establishment of better social relations among themselves
and their family members.
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Keywords
marginalised groups, touts, informal sector, networking, Tanzania
Citation
‘Marginalised Groups’ Survival in an Informal Sector in Tanzania: An Examination of Networking Strategies among Touts ‘working’ at Bus Terminals in Dar es salaam City’, Tanzania Journal of Sociology Vol. 6 (1), pp 79-95.