Academic literature on the topic 'Makeshift economy'

It is increasingly recognised by those engaged in the debate concerning the standard of living of workers during industrialisation that all forms of household income need to be assessed, not just male waged work. A more holistic approach also considers women and children's earnings, poor relief, and the wide range of self-provisioning activities and resources available through the ‘economy of makeshifts’. Over one hundred household budgets of agricultural labourers and their families have been analysed from the Ampthill Union, Bedfordshire, just before and during the implementation of the new poor law in order to further explore and quantify all components to the household income of labouring families in this key transition decade. The article finds that poor relief to families was cut in the wake of the Poor Law Amendment Act. It also finds that the low incomes of families necessitated supplementation through making shift. When the makeshift economy is quantified, it becomes clear that such activities could significantly supplement incomes.

Electricity is the prime mover of every economy; hence there is a need to maintain its generation, distribution and consumption. This study was carried out to appraise the status of electrical wiring in the Isoko area of Delta State, Nigeria. A total of 300 residential buildings, 200 makeshift shops and 100 artisan workshops were sampled and their structures, state of connection, overvoltage protection (cut-out fuse) and earthing were accessed. 100 questionnaires were distributed to electricians involved in electrical wiring and installations in the study area. Results obtained from the questionnaires revealed that only 71% of the residential buildings, 23% of the makeshift shops, and 8% of the artisan workshops made use of electric cables that met the NIS recommendations. For electric cable connections, it was observed that there was a lapse in the connections; mostly in the artisan workshops, as some service cables were not properly tightened to the distribution lines. Only 75% of the residential buildings, 53% of the makeshift shops, and 5% of the artisan workshops had approved rating cut-out fuse. It was observed that in artisan workshops, welding machines were connected directly to the service lines. Furthermore, the results revealed that 42% of the residential buildings, 87% of the makeshift shops and 99% of the artisan’s workshops lacked proper earthing. These results revealed electrical risks in many makeshift shops and artisan workshops and the need for the relevant authorities to act fast to minimize power outrage and prevent electrical tragedies in the study area. Keywords: Artisan, electrical wiring, energy theft, makeshift shops, residential buildings

Beginning on 10 January 1939, Missouri sharecropping families—1,300 women, men, and children—lived in makeshift shelters and out in the open on US highways 60 and 61. Their strategy of in situ exhibition manipulated conventions of minstrelsy through which media recognized them, successfully shaming landowners as violators of the moral economy.

This paper is a preliminary attempt to examine demographic and economic aspects of widowhood in 19th-century Montreal and the ways working-class widows in particular could survive. Although men and women lost spouses in roughly equal proportions, widows remarried much less frequently than widowers. In the reconstruction of their family economy that followed the loss of the main wage earner, some of these women sought work themselves, mostly in the sewing trades or as domestics or washerwomen. A few had already been involved in small shops, and some used their dower, inheritance, or insurance policies to set up a shop, a saloon, or a boarding-house. Children were the most valuable asset of a widow, and they were more likely to work and to stay at home through their teens and twenties than in father-headed families. Additional strategies, including sharing housing with other families, raising animals, or trading on the streets, were drawn upon; they established an economy of makeshift arrangements that characterized the world of many working-class widows.

This article traces the extraordinary development of Gaza's tunnel phenomenon over the past decade in response to Israel's economic asphyxiation of the small coastal enclave. It focuses on the period since Hamas's 2007 takeover of the Strip, which saw the industry's transformation from a clandestine, makeshift operation into a major commercial enterprise, regulated, taxed, and bureaucratized. In addition to describing the particulars of the tunnel complex, the article explores its impact on Gaza's socioeconomic hierarchy, strategic orientation, and Islamist rule. The larger geopolitical context, especially with regard to Israel, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Nile Valley, is also discussed. The author argues that contrary to the intentions of its architects, the siege precipitated the reconfiguration of Gaza's economy and enabled its rulers to circumvent the worst effects of the blockade.

This paper discusses evidence for the argument that contemporary society is undergoing a profound evolution of consciousness and practice in which sustainable traditional practices are continued, adapted, revived, and evolved. The framework that encourages this is described as a cultural hollowing out of the economic and political systems which have resulted in large-scale disenchantment and disengagement. Several examples of ways of responding to the hollow world by adopting more sustainable practices are presented, including making do, makeshift communities, the slow food movement, and the sharing economy. The importance of traditional knowledge is also emphasised. Time will tell whether the new practices will build up momentum and significantly transform the current economic order, but there is compelling evidence that large and increasing numbers of people in the developed countries are ‘voting with their feet' and disengaging from the great world.

“Jewish protection rights” (Judenschutzrechte) — the legal category according to which Jews were tolerated in a few territories of the old German Empire during the early modern period — made it difficult for Jewish subjects to establish a secure existence. There were, above all, two reasons for this. First, the personalized nature of protection rights enabled the respective authorities to develop selective settlement policies oriented consistently towards the fiscal interests of the state. The direct results of this were increased tributary payments and the withdrawal of one's “protection document” (Schutzbrief) if taxes were not paid. Second, legislators for the territories developed a multiplicity of restrictive decrees concerning the gainful employment of Jews. Consequently, there were only a few economic niches n i which “privileged Jews” (Scbutzjuden) were permitted to earn a living. In the countryside — which is where such settlements were mainly situated in the early modern period — Jews were thus dependent upon peddling foods, textiles and cattle as well as upon lending money. The specific methods of business which developed from this were reflected in the anti-Jewish legend of the deceptive travelling salesman who, by awakening ever new consumer needs, brought his Christian customers into increasing debt. If one confronts this legend with reality, one finds two characteristic methods of business which arose out of necessity: the cultivation of a varied palette of goods offered, and the development of a differentiated system of payment by instalments. At the same time, these business methods accorded with the model of an “economy of makeshift”. In the sense of such “makeshift trade”, Jewish peddlers were prepared to travel for days in order to make even the most insignificant profits.

AbstractThis article outlines the changing character of vagrant removal from the City of London during the 1780s, suggesting that the City largely abandoned its duty to ‘punish’ the vagrant poor in favour of a policy of simply moving them on as quickly and cheaply as possible. After describing the impact of the destruction of Newgate and the resulting overcrowding in London's other prisons, it provides evidence for a dramatic increase in vagrant numbers. The article suggests that this change was both a direct result of the crises of imprisonment, transportation and punishment that followed the Gordon Riots and American war; and a result of growing demand for the transportation provided to vagrants, on the part of the migratory poor. Having established the existence of a changing pattern of vagrant removal, it suggests that the poor increasingly made use of the City of London, and the system of removal, to access transportation in pursuit of seasonal migration, and more significantly, medical care in the hospitals of the capital as part of a wider ‘economy of makeshift’.

This thesis examines the link between legislative reforms, crime and the makeshift strategies that the poor used to support their households in the Medway basin and rural districts in north Oxfordshire between 1830 and 1885. In short, this thesis considers whether the poor relied on different criminal strategies to maintain their makeshift households in both rural and urban environments. To this end, it examines how the labouring population in the two regions coped with a raft of legislative reforms and the sort of socio-economic changes that occurred over the longer term. This thesis also demonstrates how the technique of Record Linkage can help eliminate some of the problems that arise when data-sets are incomplete or when source documents are missing. To fulfill these objectives, this thesis is divided into eight chapters. The first of these outlines the research questions and definitions that are used throughout this survey. Chapter two engages with the current historiography that relates to the study of crime and poverty in Kent and Oxfordshire in the nineteenth century. It establishes how this thesis improves our understanding of the way that legislative reforms and socio-economic change helped to shape the criminal strategies that the labouring poor utilised in the two regions, between 1830 and 1885. Chapter three identifies the socio-economic emergence of the Medway basin as an industrial centre and explains why similar changes did not occur in Oxfordshire. The chapters which follow detail how population growth and industrial development affected labour markets and the distribution of welfare in the two regions. In doing so. they establish whether the poor in the two regions were reliant on the proceeds of crime to support their makeshift households. or whether they simply exploited weaknesses in the administration of local government institutions. so that they might improve the state of their household economies. When considered together, this thesis establishes that crime was one of the components that the labouring poor in Kent and Oxfordshire used to support their makeshift economies, when legislative reforms and socio-economic change threatened to undermine the solvency of their households.

La période allant des années 1860 aux années 1940 est souvent associée à la disparition du colportage du fait de l’urbanisation des sociétés européennes et de l’essor des petits magasins. Cette thèse s’inscrit dans la continuité de travaux cherchant à relativiser ce déclin. Elle montre que le nombre de vendeurs itinérants ne décline pas avant les années 1930. Les colporteurs répondent à une demande multiforme, ne se résumant pas aux produits bon marché. L’essor du tourisme et l’urbanisation encouragent, en outre, la vente de rue. Le colportage participe donc du dynamisme commercial de la Grande-Bretagne contemporaine. Du point de vue de l’histoire du travail, la vente itinérante sert parfois de filet de sécurité aux travailleurs pauvres durant les périodes de chômage, s’insérant dans l’économie d’expédients des classes populaires. D’autres individus font de cette activité leur profession principale, et en tirent un bon profit, comme les credit drapers. Ce travail s’insère enfin dans l’histoire des migrations : le colportage est populaire chez les migrants saisonniers et est également une stratégie pour s’insérer sur le marché du travail britannique en vue d’une installation permanente. La thèse étudie ensuite la régulation et l’encadrement policier du colportage. Elle contribue ainsi à l’histoire de la construction de l’Etat et des politiques publiques. Les autorités britanniques tentent à la fois d’encourager et de contrôler la vente itinérante. Elle est vue comme alternative à l’assistance publique par les Libéraux de la fin du XIXe siècle, mais est également perçue comme un danger potentiel, car elle est souvent comparée au vagabondage. Au niveau municipal, l’idée que le colportage doit être un filet de sécurité pour les pauvres est controversée : les problèmes de compétition, de travail des enfants, les soucis d’hygiène ou d’obstructions des voies publiques poussent les autorités locales à l’encadrer. La peur du vagabondage disparaît après 1914. Cependant, la Grande-Bretagne opère un tournant protectionniste et adopte des lois anti-migratoires. Si, au niveau local, l’encadrement des colporteurs se fait de plus en plus strict, les lois nationales du XIXe siècle deviennent anachroniques, notamment face à la diffusion de nouveaux moyens de transport. La Seconde Guerre mondiale vient enfin refondre cet appareil législatif dans le cadre d’une économie contrôlée par l’État. Après 1945, l’idéal du colportage servant de filet de sécurité aux travailleurs pauvres a quasiment disparu. Cette thèse dégage les grandes lignes de l’évolution du colportage et de sa régulation. Elle fait un panorama des différents groupes s’y adonnant et porte une attention particulière aux catégories de genre, aux processus de racialisation et aux conditions socio-économiques des individus. Un panel de sources varié est mobilisé: sources administratives et policières, presse, recensement, mais aussi sources généalogiques, sources publiées et autobiographies
The 1860s–1940s period is often described as being marked by the decline of town-to-town and doorstep trading, primarily due to the proliferation of small shops and urbanisation. I challenge this narrative by contributing to three distinct research fields. First, commercial history: I demonstrate that the number of itinerant traders did not substantially decrease in Britain before the mid-1930s. Pedlars and hawkers continued to meet a diverse consumer demand that extended beyond a simple need for inexpensive, low-quality goods. They remained popular in the countryside and in small towns. The rise of tourism and urbanisation contributed to the expansion of street trading in Britain, underscoring the integral role of itinerant trading in the nation's commercial dynamism. This dissertation also contributes to labour history: itinerant trading served as a safety net for poor labourers during periods of unemployment. Itinerant trading was thus part of the working classes' makeshift economy. For other traders, such as credit drapers, it represented a profitable and long-term career choice. Finally, this dissertation adds to migration history: peddling and hawking were popular among seasonal migrants and often served as entry-level occupations for those seeking to settle more permanently in Britain. The dissertation also contributes to the history of policing, public policies, and public assistance. British authorities aimed to both encourage and control itinerant trading. In the 1870s, Liberals viewed this activity as a good alternative to poor relief. However, it was also seen as problematic, as many reformers and police officers associated peddling with vagrancy. Within local governance, its role of a 'self-help' occupation was contentious. Issues such as commercial competition, child labour, hygiene, and obstruction of public highways led local authorities to impose restrictions on this activity. After 1914, concerns about vagrancy declined, but Britain implemented protectionist and anti-migration policies. A growing number of bye-laws was passed to regulate itinerant trading during this period, but the general acts of the late nineteenth century became increasingly outdated, particularly with the emergence of new modes of transport. The Second World War prompted authorities to amend regulations concerning itinerant traders of rationed commodities. After the war, the ideal of peddling serving as a safety-net for the poor disappeared from public discourse. This dissertation provides an overview of the evolution of itinerant trading and of its regulation in a period of urbanisation, industrialisation, and globalisation. It explores the various groups involved in this activity, with particular attention to gender, racialisation processes, and the socio-economic backgrounds of individuals. It rests on a variety of sources, including administrative and police records, the press, census returns, published sources, and ego-documents

This thesis questions a series of assumptions concerning the nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century modernization of European spaces. Current scholarship tends to concur with essayistic texts and images by contemporary intellectuals that technological and organizational developments increased the freedom of movement of those living in western-European societies, while at the same time alienating them from each other and from their environment. I assess this claim with the help of Dutch travel egodocuments such as travel diaries and letters. After a prosopographical investigation of all available northern-Netherlandish travel egodocuments created between 1500 and 1915, a selection of these documents is examined in greater detail. In these documents, travellers regarded the possession of identity documents, a correct appearance, and a fitting social identity along with their personal contacts, physical capabilities, and the weather as the most important factors influencing whether they managed to gain access to places. A discussion of these factors demonstrates that no linear increase, nor a decrease, occurred in the spatial power felt by travellers. The exclusion many travellers continued to experience was often overdetermined. The largest groups affected by this were women and less educated families. Yet travellers could also play out different access factors against each other. By paying attention to how practices matched hopes and expectations, it is possible to discover how gravely social inequities were really felt by travellers. Perhaps surprisingly, all social groups desired to visit the same types of places. Their main difference concerned the atmosphere of the places where the different groups felt at home. To a large degree this matched travellers' unequal opportunities. Therefore, although opportunities remained strongly unequal throughout the period, this was not always experienced as a problem. Also, in cases where it was, many travellers knew strategies to work around the obstacles created for them.

Women's experience in the towns of medieval Europe was framed by the nature of the urban economy and the legal system in place. Women operated everywhere within a patriarchal system, but the limits and possibilities of their economic participation varied across time, marital status, social status, family ties, and training. Elite women managed households, but in some cities they can be found investing in trade and industry, engaging in financial operations, and exploiting real property. Middling women engaged in sales of luxury goods and agricultural commodities, in real-estate transactions, in partnerships and apprenticeships. Rarely did they enjoy guild membership, but they contributed to medieval artisanal industry. Poor women, domestic servants, prostitutes, and slaves were everywhere the disadvantaged in medieval cities, though some, such as hucksters, could overcome the makeshift transient economy of which they were a part. Gender dictated the fate of urban women, however historical assessments might differ.

The opening story from the 15th-century nun’s diary about their enforced flight to Braunschweig illustrates the centrality of the concept of leading a cloistered life for medieval nuns. Contrasting the makeshift arrangements during their absence with the ideal layout of a prototypical female monastic community, the chapter explores the living spaces of medieval nuns which are designed to cater for their sacred and economic needs. The visual example to close the chapter is the monumental 14th-century map from the convent of Ebstorf, which includes representations of world history as well as the physical geography of Northern Germany.

The aftermath of the global financial crisis marked another stress test for welfare states and varieties of capitalism. More than ever before, governments were forced to consider substantial reforms to welfare provision and enact flexibility-enhancing measures in order to improve financial solvency and economic performance. The crash, however, was not only a regionally uneven process in its origins but also led to makeshift or uneven policy responses. As a result, the socio-economic effects of the downturn and political reactions to it varied considerably among countries. Nevertheless, there have been some common trends in outcome measures. These have served to blur the dividing lines between different welfare states and production systems, so vividly captured in the mainstream political economy literature.

Workers perform a diverse range of digital economy activities both in BPOs and on platforms. This chapter provides a snapshot of how and where these diverse work activities get done in Africa, showing that African workers remain very much a part of contemporary digital capitalism. They perform a wide range of digital work activities from diverse locations—from an office block in the centre of a lively metropolis, to a makeshift room in a town recovering from civil war, as well as a multitude of bedrooms, cafes, and libraries across the continent. In summary, this chapter offers a visual and descriptive outline of the various types of digital activities being performed in newer spaces that are connecting to the global information economy. In doing so, it asks what types of work get done in Africa, and what that means for value creation and capture.

Chapter 5 turns to the Korean “multicultural agents” who work for Korean multiculturalism, including government officers, community volunteers, and social workers to describe in greater detail the local, day-to-day operation of Korean multiculturalism. Drawing on the idea of “makeshift multiculturalism,” the chapter traces how local multicultural programs were developed using individual actors’ prior knowledge and interests, and calls into question their contributions to making a multicultural society. Also, the chapter shows that multicultural agents ground their mission in diverse affective bases including benevolence, paternalism, and pity, and a multicultural “economy of gratitude” (Hochschild 2012) expects that gifts of service are exchanged for gifts of gender-specific reproductive contribution and commitment to marriage. Lastly, the chapter shows that marriage immigrants and their husbands take part in “making” multiculturalism.