Search results

Using empirical data from a sample of the Kumasi traders we explore how discourses around education and development contribute to understandings of market trading as an occupational destination. We start with some historical background to market trading in Ghana together with characterisations of market traders from previous academic work. Following this we focus on some of the ways in which education to work trajectories are constructed in development policy and theory. As market trade in Ghana has been dominated by women, we use a gender perspective, which shows that within this sector, level of education and income are gender differentiated. We then move to consider how this highly feminised sector is incorporated into the macroeconomics of development. Finally, we turn to the qualitative data from the traders themselves in a discussion of which factors, including their educational background, have influenced the traders to enter and remain in the market. This produces a far more complex scenario that highlights the importance of social and domestic factors, which have not been entirely captured in theories linking education and work.