Cooperation among small-scale enterprises within and beyond an industrial area has drawn attention in economics and geography for its capacity to facilitate industrial development and innovation. The description of cooperation among such enterprises inside an industrial area largely depends on models based on industrial areas in developed countries such as Italy, where scholars emphasize the unity of community within the industrial area as a driving force for cooperation. Some industrial areas in urban Ghana, however, have a history of forced relocation and subsequent settlement of new enterprises. These conditions hinder the formation of communal identity. This article ethnographically elucidates the relations between different actors in the automobile repair industry in Ghana from the perspectives of auto mechanics (fitters) and attempts to examine the situation in which cooperation among them occurs. It was found that while most repair jobs are done by replacing parts and using the related services of different artisans, problems occur when fitters are unable to find shops to go to or parts to buy, or when they find the spare parts they have purchased do not fit. Fitters overcome these problems by seeking information from people around them and by making bricolage adjustments of spare parts with nearby artisans. From these findings, I argue that their cooperation is not based on communal relations but induced by the uncertainty of information within the industrial area, which should rather be considered as a “bazaar.”

This article aims to discuss the characteristics of the Dalit Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DICCI), focusing on three points: its history, the purpose of its activities, and the way in which it empowers Dalit entrepreneurs.

The DICCI is a business association that aims to support Dalit entrepreneurs, often informal sector business owners. It was founded in 2005 and currently has 26 national chapters and 7 international chapters, and a total membership of around 10,000. The DICCI argues that Dalits can improve socially and economically through capitalism and markets, and that fostering Dalit entrepreneurs will help solve their social and economic problems.

This paper suggests that the DICCI is an organization that seeks to transform caste relations and achieve dignity for Dalits. More specifically, the DICCI is developing a network of Dalit entrepreneurs by connecting Dalit entrepreneurs with each other and with entrepreneurs of other castes. It is promoting affirmative action to secure business opportunities. Moreover, it is attempting to dignify Dalit entrepreneurs by describing them as agents who transform caste relations, new role models who achieve economic uplift through entrepreneurship, and actors who contribute to the growth of the Indian economy.

The concept of Malay in Malaysia is said to have lost its inherent fluidity in the process of modernization and transformed into a fixed ethnic category. However, the outer boundaries are still not clear, as evidenced by the cultural definition of Malay in the Constitution. This paper examines the evolution of the Malay concept and its background, focusing on the Indian Muslim citizens who have been oscillating across the Malay/Indian ethnic boundaries. Before the colonial period, when Malay was an inclusive concept with kingship and Islam at its core, they could be included in this category. However, when the penetration of colonial administration gradually fixed the concept of Malay, and when the debate over “Who is a Malay?” began along with nationalism, they were excluded from the Malay category because of their exoticism. Nevertheless, when postwar political changes shifted Malay nationalism toward “the establishment of Malay superiority,” they were once again included in the Malay category as they supported this position. Their current situation, which still wavers on the borderline between the Malay and Indian, reveals that the outer boundaries of Malay for those on the borderline are still ambiguously fixed, since the process of fixation of Malay boundaries has always proceeded with the differentiation of the immigrant groups, Chinese and Indian.

The predominant form of livelihood in the south of the Horn of Africa is livestock production by Somali pastoralists. Livestock and related products have been exported from this area on a large scale for decades, and this has prospered even after the collapse of Siad Barre’s dictatorial regime in Somalia. This informal economic activity is characterized by a chain of actors, including shirkad (large-scale companies), gana’sade (large-scale traders), jeble (small-scale traders), dilaal (brokers), and raa’i (trekkers). Among these, dilaal are sometimes characterized as a negative component of market transactions. They are market negotiators, and their employment is a traditional part of the livestock trading system. They are regarded as being dishonest with herders, who are not accustomed to market negotiations, and are said to be greedy and raise their fees from unwary traders and herders. Based on fieldwork in a primary market for camels in Modogashe, northeastern Kenya, this paper aims to examine their activities and their social implications. For the camel herders in the bush (reer baadiya), dilaal are indispensable as mediators with livestock traders (reer magaalada), who are culturally distinct from them.