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Riches from Rags or Persistent Poverty? The Working Lives of Secondhand Clothing Vendors in Maputo, Mozambique
Abstract and Figures
Secondhand clothing markets are a common sight in African urban centers. This article investigates the working lives of self-employed market vendors in Maputo, Mozambique. The secondhand clothing system of provision is discussed and the system’s effect on vendors’ ability
to profit from the secondhand clothing trade is explored. The valuing of used clothing depends both on how individual garments are culturally perceived and on their material use-value. Used clothes vary greatly in quality; some items are valuable fashionable garments whereas others are ripped
and soiled waste rags. Different vendors specialize in various types of clothing and accumulate expert knowledge as to how specific items are revalued in Mozambican society. Their businesses have been found to be precarious as they lack agency in influencing the provision of clothing stock
imported from the Global North and their ability to achieve profits is affected by the variable quality of used clothing items. This contrasts with other studies of the used clothing trade in sub-Saharan Africa, which have focused on the beneficial opportunities for upgrading livelihoods afforded
to those who are able to successfully embed themselves in used clothing supply chains. Furthermore, it is discussed how through their work activities impoverished Mozambican market vendors are entangled with globalization and how the market serves as a site for the expression of aspirations
and frustrations.
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... Some of those not disposed of are sold to commercial SHC dealers. These SHCs are then sorted and categorized from luxury items and men's and women's garments to infant clothing (Rivoli, 2005), which are then loaded into containers and shipped to other parts of the world (Brooks, 2012). Due to the positive acceptance of consumers, SHC impacts the garments industry by shifting the global phenomenon of production for ready-to-wear and custom-made clothing (Hansen, 2010;Isla, 2013). ...
This paper aims to identify the antecedents of buying behavior for secondhand clothing among millennials, as well as to determine their underlying causal relationships. Upon a comprehensive literature search, a total of 18 antecedents were found, and these are categorized into three motives, namely, economic, hedonic and recreational, and critical. As a case study in the Philippines, a focus group discussion among experts who are active millennial secondhand clothing users and buyers were tasked to identify the antecedents they have experienced and further confirm those extracted from the literature. To establish the causal relationships of these antecedents, categorize them into net causes or net effects, and address the vagueness associated with the decision-making process, a fuzzy DEMATEL method is used. Results reveal that avoidance of conventional channels proves to be the antecedent providing the highest impact among all other antecedents. Uniqueness, high quality, and fashion trend found to be the antecedents with the highest impacts received, making them the major net effects. Findings from this work hope to provide a framework among practitioners that would lead to a better understanding of millennials’ buying behavior for secondhand clothing.
The introduction and first chapter of The Dirty Side of the Garment Industry: Fast Fashion and Its Negative Impact on Environment and Society, curtesy of Taylor & Francis.
The aim of this paper is to assess opportunities for the upcycling of waste clothing through design workshops held in Accra, Ghana. An upcycling approach to clothing longevity examines how garments can be re-designed and resold in a new form. Significant amounts of surplus and second-hand clothing from the developed world and large producer nations, for example China, are distributed to Africa and sold in local markets at affordable prices. The research was conducted into upcycling waste clothing from the market by five groups of fashion design students at Accra Technical University (ATU). A participatory research design was applied to the project and the initial briefing to design groups confirmed the concept of upcycling and the design parameters. Each group defined a design theme, made a selection of clothes and accessories in the Accra market and returned to the university to conceptualise and re-create clothes and accessories. The project culminated in presentations of finished garments modelled by the students. It addressed the disposal stage of the circular economy model of clothing sustainability by providing new knowledge of how waste clothing, readily available in a developing country’s market can be sourced and creatively re-designed into new garments and accessories.
Cambridge Core - Environmental Policy, Economics and Law - Urban Energy Landscapes - by Vanesa Castán Broto
Is Mozambique an African success story? It has 7 percent a year growth rate and substantial foreign investment. Fifteen years after the war of destabilisation, the peace has held. Mozambique is the donors’ model pupil, carefully following their prescriptions and receiving more than a billion dollars a year in aid. The number of bicycles has doubled and this is often cited as the symbol of development. In this book the authors challenge some key assumptions of both the donors and the government and ask questions such as whether there has been too much stress on the Millennium Development Goals and too little support for economic development; if it makes sense to target the poorest of the poor, or would it be better to target those who create the jobs which will employ the poor; whether there has been too much emphasis on foreign investment and too little on developing domestic capital; and if the private sector really will end poverty, or must there be a stronger role for the state in the economy? This book is about more than Mozambique. Mozambique is an apparent success story that is used to justify the present ‘post-Washington consensus’ development model. Here, the case of Mozambique is situated within the broader development debate. Joseph Hanlon is Senior Lecturer at the Open University and the author of ‘Beggar Your Neighbours’; ‘Mozambique: Who Calls the Shots?’; and ‘Peace without Profit’ (all published by James Currey) which have all made influential interventions in the development debate; Teresa Smart is Director of the London Mathematics Centre, Institute of Education.
This unique 2007 book is comprehensive both in terms of time coverage, from before the Pharaohs to the present moment and in that it tries to consider cities from the entire continent, not just Sub-Saharan Africa. Apart from factual information and rich description material culled from many sources, it looks at many issues from why urban life emerged in the first place to how present-day African cities cope in difficult times. Instead of seeing towns and cities as somehow extraneous to the real Africa, it views them as an inherent part of developing Africa, indigenous, colonial, and post-colonial and emphasizes the extent to which the future of African society and African culture will likely be played out mostly in cities. The book is written to appeal to students of history but equally to geographers, planners, sociologists and development specialists interested in urban problems.