Informal enterprises, actor logics and assumed transgressive play: An attempt to analyze anchoring in informality

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to understand the logics of the informality that characterize informal enterprises in Senegal. The article uses a qualitative methodology based on semi-structured and informal interviews with fifty-five (55) non formal business owner. The results show that the anchoring in informality is not only due to a lack of means and the persistence of makeshift activities, but also to a strategic cost/benefit calculation and a willingness not to conform to established norms. In this respect, the logic of prevention of risks and uncertainties linked to wage, social and tax charges, the alleged abuses of political authorities and bureaucratic actors, and the lack of perspective in terms of access to public orders, etc., allow us to understand the sources of the strategic logic and transgressive game that characterize these informal organizations.