Chances and challenges of African entrepreneurial activity in times of crisis

Abstract

This special issue looks in new ways at the relationship between small-scale entrepreneurship, economic (and political) crisis, and the outcomes of neoliberal market economy in African countries. In other words, it studies entrepreneurial activities particularly of young people in crisis situations in contemporary African economic contexts through close-to-the-ground ethnography and an anthropological perspective. The contributions examine from the vantage point of the specific circumstances in their country–Rwanda, Kenya, Cameroon/South Africa, Southern Algeria, Burkina Faso, Nigeria–how young people work on their futures as entrepreneurial agents navigating between local settings, governmental regulations and (global) market relations.