Webbläsaren som du använder stöds inte av denna webbplats. Alla versioner av Internet Explorer stöds inte längre, av oss eller Microsoft (läs mer här: * https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/windows/end-of-ie-support).

Var god och använd en modern webbläsare för att ta del av denna webbplats, som t.ex. nyaste versioner av Edge, Chrome, Firefox eller Safari osv.

Porträttfoto Katherine Gough

Katherine Gough

Professor

Porträttfoto Katherine Gough

Transitions to adulthood among young entrepreneurs in the informal mobile telephony sector in Accra, Ghana

Författare

  • Robert L. Afutu-Kotey
  • Katherine V. Gough
  • Paul W.K. Yankson

Summary, in English

The rapid expansion of the mobile telephony sector in African countries has been accompanied by the establishment of a wide range of informal support businesses, mostly run by young people. Little is known, however, about the lived experiences of young entrepreneurs working in this rapidly changing, technologically-driven sector. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Accra, this paper explores young people's experiences of running informal businesses within the mobile telephony sector, including the sale of mobile phones and accessories, repair and technical support services, and the sale of airtime and mobile money services. Fateful and critical moments relating to personal and family events, as well as social networks and structural factors, are shown to mediate young entrepreneurs’ chances of success in this new ‘niche’ economic sub-sector. Despite the challenges they face, the paper illustrates how many of these young people have been able to achieve financial independence, afford rental accommodation, provide support for family members, and establish and sustain households. The mobile telephony sector is shown to be offering young people the opportunity to carve out a living, facilitate transitions into adulthood, and even enable some to move up the social ladder. By highlighting the agency of this group of young people, and for some their success in achieving the status of adulthood through their hard work and ingenuity, this study offers an important counter balance to images of young people in sub-Saharan Africa as being ‘stuck’ or in ‘waithood’.

Publiceringsår

2017-10

Språk

Engelska

Sidor

290-298

Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie

Geoforum

Volym

85

Dokumenttyp

Artikel i tidskrift

Förlag

Elsevier

Ämne

  • Human Geography

Nyckelord

  • Critical moments
  • Entrepreneurship
  • Ghana
  • Informal economy
  • Mobile phones
  • Young people

Aktiv

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Övrigt

  • ISSN: 0016-7185