Urbanization Process and the Plight of Waste Pickers and Machinga

The social problems of urbanization have been conceptualized as basing in the modernization thinking as developed in the west. The attribution has been put on population growth, rural-urban migration, ineffective administration, and people establishing settlement in unplanned areas among others. These are mentioned as causing social havoc in urban setting including the people who are regarded as creating bad picture to the urban environment, in this case waste pickers and hawkers (machinga). This show the sense in which this outlook as been descriptive and prescriptive rather than analytical, thus mystifying social realities by locating the plight of waste pickers and hawkers as to be found in their inability to meet the skills to accommodate them in recognized production activities. This study proceeds with argument that, we need alternative theoretical perspective towards understanding the plight of these social categories. This is only possible by using a socio-historical perspective, that is, political economy approach. The work again does argue that the disarticulation and distortion of Tanzania capitalist economy is the social process for the persistence of the problem

Autorentext

Danstan Mukono (BA, MA) in Sociology, he is Assistant Lecturer and Researcher; Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Dar es Salaam. Currently also working with International Organisation for Standardization (ISO) as National Expert on Social Responsibility. His area of interest is Urban Social Problems, Social Welfare and Research