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Formalising urban informality: micro-enterprise and the regulation of liquor in Cape Town

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 November 2014

Andrew Charman ,
Clare Herrick  and
Leif Petersen
Andrew Charman*
Affiliation:
Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, PO Box 17, Muizenberg, 7950 Cape Town, South Africa
Clare Herrick*
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom
Leif Petersen*
Affiliation:
Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation, PO Box 17, Muizenberg, 7950, Cape Town, South Africa, and Department of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, University of Queensland, Australia
*
Email: Andrew.charman@livelihoods.org.za
*Corresponding author. Email: clare.herrick@kcl.ac.uk
Email: leif.peterson@livelihoods.org.za
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Abstract

In early 2012, South Africa's Western Cape Province enacted new alcohol control legislation amid mounting concern with the costs of alcohol-related harms. This has focused on urban shebeen closure to control the informal, unlicensed trade and the harms it generates through crime, violence and injury. In contrast to policy discourse, this paper contends that rather than existing outside regulation, the city's shebeeners embrace multiple (self and collective) regulatory strategies to manage the inherent risks of their own informality. Drawing on novel empirical data including a ‘business census’ and interviews with the police and liquor traders across four Cape Town case study sites, the paper adds new depth to contemporary engagements with the appropriate and equitable regulation of the South African informal liquor trade.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 4 , December 2014 , pp. 623 - 646
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

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