INFORMALIDADE E RECOMPOSIÇÃO DO ESTADO: o tratamento da pobreza urbana nos municípios da Beira de Mueda

Abstract

This article examines the treatment of activities classified as informal in the Mozambican municipalities of Beira and Mueda. It is an exploratory study that, based on qualitative methodologies, seeks to demonstrate that the nature of the relationship between the municipal administration and the informal sellers converted into “formalized informal” sellers and placed in “informal markets” reinforces the presence of the State through the survival strategies of the populations. A large part of the literature, especially Africanist, sees in the informal activities the fragility and incapacity of the State to impose itself and maintain a bureaucratic order of the cities. The article maintains that the treatment of informality, its negotiation through the "administratification" by the public authorities, is a new modality of exercising power, no longer defined in terms of the vertical imposition of unilateral administrative acts. Henceforth, the strength of the State is defined by its ability to create subtle devices (such as the urban poverty reduction policy) to identify potential in the citizen while putting him or her in collaboration with public and private bodies.