Informality, religious conflict, and governance in Northern Nigeria: economic inclusion in divided societies

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Periodical article

Title:	Informality, religious conflict, and governance in Northern Nigeria: economic inclusion in divided societies
Author:	Meagher, Kate
Year:	2013
Periodical:	African Studies Review (ISSN 1555-2462)
Volume:	56
Issue:	3
Pages:	209-234
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Northern Nigeria Nigeria
Subjects:	informal sector interreligious relations social conflicts State-society relationship
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/asr.2013.86
Abstract:	This article examines processes of economic inclusion in divided societies, with a focus on both religious and formal-informal divides. Drawing on recent fieldwork in the Northern Nigerian cities of Kano and Kaduna, the article challenges the assumption that identity-based informal organization intensifies violent social divisions, and that taxation and linkages with the State foster more stable and inclusive governance. A range of informal sector activities - motorcycle taxi operators, tailors, tire dealers, butchers, and pepper soup producers in beer parlor - provides insights into escalating religious conflict and uneven patterns of formal inclusion in interreligious relations. Attention is focused on the relative role of informal institutions and formal interventions such as taxation in diffusing or exacerbating conflict at the grassroots level. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]