Michal Lyons
Biographic Data
| ID | 3613852 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michal Lyons |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michal |
| FAMILY NAME | Lyons |
| SIGNATURE | LYONS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | London South Bank University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 24 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 373 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 24 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1993 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Do Micro Enterprises Benefit from the ‘Doing Business’ Reforms? The Case of Street-Vending in Tanzania
The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ reforms were originally expected to help the growth and formalisation of SMEs and micro enterprises. The expectations that reforms would support the growth and development of SMEs were challenged by scholars, but the reforms’ impact on the micro enterprises of the poor has received little scholarly attention. Drawing on a desk study and on field studies of street-vendors carried out in Tanzania in 2007 and 2011, …
Asr Forum: Engaging With African Informal Economies
This article analyzes the value chain for Chinese manufactured goods such as garments and textiles sold in sub-Saharan Africa. It explores the opportunities for Africans with small, private businesses in the export trade from China, the potential for long-term business development, and how strategies of engagement have changed over time. It finds that the value chains for low-cost goods vary. There is great diversity of entry levels and opportuni…
China’s ‘Chocolate City’: An Ethnic Enclave in a Changing Landscape
The recent rise of African communities in Guangzhou has been widely noted. To understand this ‘Chocolate City,’ with a series of field surveys in 2006-2010, we examine its different development stages and shed particular light upon its internal and external linkages. Three modalities: the emerging enclave, the prosperous enclave and the collapsing enclave, have been identified. The rise of the ‘Chocolate City’ has been mainly attributed to the ri…
In the Dragon's Den: African Traders in Guangzhou
A growing literature studies the Chinese diasporas in Africa, involved in the import and distribution of manufactured goods across the continent, identifying their economic and social strategies and their interactions with African urban and political life. In contrast, the counter-flow of African private traders to China has been relatively little studied, yet is part of significant changes in African economies and societies, and creates new inte…
Resilient dwellings or resilient people? Towards people-centred reconstruction
Our review of post-disaster reconstruction in 10 countries has demonstrated some of the weaknesses in currently dominant approaches, e.g. donor-driven reconstruction and owner-driven reconstruction. They have often been top-down and exclusionary, focusing on people with existing title to land and housing, and failing to reach the marginalized, especially in urban areas. Since they aim for safer dwellings, they rarely tackle people s underlying vu…
Harnessing time: Reflections on constraints to development
This short piece argues that a series of progressive developments in our understanding of aid after disasters, and how we should seek to deliver and manage it, calls for a review of accountability systems in the sector. Keywords: accountabilitynatural disasterreconstructionresiliencevulnerability
Seen but not heard: Urban voice and citizenship for street traders
The World Bank and the Street: (How) Do ‘Doing Business’ Reforms Affect Tanzania’s Micro-traders
The well-documented weaknesses of structural adjustment policies have led to a reconceptualisation of the World Bank’s approach to neo-liberal reforms. The ‘Doing Business’ reforms aim to foster a better climate for business in a number of ways. The main policy documents reject interventions targeted at specific groups but, although they identify informal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as likely to benefit disproportionately, they specifical…
Street Traders and the Emerging Spaces for Urban Voice and Citizenship in African Cities
As informal commerce has grown to become the lifeblood of African cities, street trade—among the largest sub-groups in the informal economy—has become a visible but contested domain. Yet the increase in street traders has not been accompanied by a corresponding improvement in their status as citizens or in their political influence. The paper first discusses the implications of theoretical debates on ‘citizenship’ and ‘voice’ for street traders a…
Africa's informal workers: Collective agency, alliances and transnational organizing in urban Africa
Africa's Informal Workers is a vigorous examination of the informalization and casualization of work, which is changing livelihoods in Africa and beyond
Has Mercantilism Reduced Urban Poverty in SSA? Perception of Boom, Bust, and the China–Africa Trade in Lomé and Bamako
Inhabiting Spaces of Liminality: Migrants in Omonia, Athens
When a dominant group yields space to the ‘other’, boundaries are redrawn in urban space or time. However, as migration increases, the ‘other’ becomes increasingly diverse. Through a study of the Omonia area of Athens, this article addresses two gaps at the intersection of urban and migration studies: (How) is spatial differentiation constructed and negotiated among migrant groups? (How) is it maintained over time? Findings enrich our understandi…
The ‘third tier’ of globalization: African traders in Guangzhou
In recent years, China’s major trading cities have witnessed rapid social, cultural and physical change which has accompanied the country’s boom in manufacturing and exports. A small but increasingly significant element of this growth has been the China--Africa trade in small‐scale manufactured goods. The opening of China’s economy has created new spaces for migrant entrepreneurs capturing a share of international value chains, transforming socia…
Building Back Better: The Large-Scale Impact of Small-Scale Approaches to Reconstruction
Creating Urban Social Capital: Some Evidence from Informal Traders in Nairobi
The poverty and dramatic alteration in geographical composition of African cities have been associated with rapid urbanisation, the growth of the informal economy and migration. The latter has separated individuals from long-established social and kinship networks, and from familiar livelihood strategies. The sustainable livelihoods approach views social capital as one of the poor's most important assets in managing their lives. This paper asks f…
Sustainable Urban Livelihoods and Marketplace Social Capital: Crisis and Strategy in Petty Trade
Urban growth has been accompanied by the development of bimodal labour markets and increasing inequalities in both North and South. In Southern cities, many of the poor have turned to the informal sector, in particular to street trade. This has resulted in a multiplicity of urban conflicts and has led to pressure on urban managers to undertake formalisation, for which an increasingly developmental approach has been advocated. Nevertheless, for tr…
Spatial Segregation in Seven Cities: A Longitudinal Study of Home Ownership, 1971-91
Globalisation has been associated with the development of 'command node' cities in the global economy (Friedman, 1986; Sassen, 1991). Some scholars have argued that the social and spatial structure of such cities has been polarised, because of changing demand for labour and land. A number of debates have developed around this hypothesis, challenging the general applicability of these socio-economic trends to all global cities (e.g. Bruegel, 1996;…
The impact of a changing policy framework on isolated communities: A South African experience
Participation, Empowerment and Sustainability: (How) Do the Links Work
This paper investigates the relationship between participation, empowerment and sustainability. Using the multisectoral and multicontextual experience of participation amassed in South Africa, both pre- and post-apartheid, we address two questions: does participation lead to empowerment; and does empowerment, in turn, lead to sustainability? Further, what external factors mediate and influence that relationship? Analysis shows that a relationship…
Participation, Empowerment and Sustainability: (How) Do the Links Work
This paper investigates the relationship between participation, empowerment and sustainability. Using the multisectoral and multicontextual experience of participation amassed in South Africa, both pre- and post- apartheid , we address two questions: does participation lead to empowerment; and does empowerment, in turn, lead to sustainability? Further, what external factors mediate and influence that relationship? Analysis shows that a relationsh…
From rags to riches? Migration and intergenerational change in London's housing market, 1971–91
In 1971 under half of London's young people, then living with their parents, lived in households that owned their homes, while well over half lived in rented housing. By 1991, now no longer living with their parents, less than a quarter of these young people were tenants. This paper identifies the components of that intergenerational tenure mobility, distinguishing between home ownership in more, and less, ‘desirable’ wards, and quantifies the ro…
Community Agency in the New South Africa: A Comparative Approach
Using South Africa as a case study for the workings of community agency in partnerships with the public and non-profit sector, this paper focuses on community-driven developments in townships in the Western Cape. The hypothesis is put forward that although structural factors are a major influence on the success of community agency, a formal approach to project management offers a powerful tool for mitigating their impact. The paper addresses the …
Gentrification, Socioeconomic Change, and the Geography of Displacement
This paper examines the effect of continuing gentrification on household displacement in London. The author analyzes the geography and selectivity of migration. She found that long-range displacement from gentrifying areas affects progressively higher status households. Migrations over short distances are characteristic of low status households. This bifurcation is exploreed in relation to the integration of structure-based and agency-based appro…
A Tale of Two Cities: Housing Policy and Gentrification in London and New York
This paper presents the results of a comparative study of neighborhood change. It was performed to test the proposition that political structures mediate political outcomes. The efficacy of different political structures in formulating and executing policies and the variety of those responses to similar conditions are the subject of this report. The study investigates the role of public policy in areas subject to the conditions generally associat…
Africa's informal workers: Collective agency, alliances and transnational organizing in urban Africa
Africa's Informal Workers is a vigorous examination of the informalization and casualization of work, which is changing livelihoods in Africa and beyond
China’s ‘Chocolate City’: An Ethnic Enclave in a Changing Landscape
The recent rise of African communities in Guangzhou has been widely noted. To understand this ‘Chocolate City,’ with a series of field surveys in 2006-2010, we examine its different development stages and shed particular light upon its internal and external linkages. Three modalities: the emerging enclave, the prosperous enclave and the collapsing enclave, have been identified. The rise of the ‘Chocolate City’ has been mainly attributed to the ri…
Street Traders and the Emerging Spaces for Urban Voice and Citizenship in African Cities
As informal commerce has grown to become the lifeblood of African cities, street trade—among the largest sub-groups in the informal economy—has become a visible but contested domain. Yet the increase in street traders has not been accompanied by a corresponding improvement in their status as citizens or in their political influence. The paper first discusses the implications of theoretical debates on ‘citizenship’ and ‘voice’ for street traders a…
Building Back Better: The Large-Scale Impact of Small-Scale Approaches to Reconstruction
Gentrification, Socioeconomic Change, and the Geography of Displacement
This paper examines the effect of continuing gentrification on household displacement in London. The author analyzes the geography and selectivity of migration. She found that long-range displacement from gentrifying areas affects progressively higher status households. Migrations over short distances are characteristic of low status households. This bifurcation is exploreed in relation to the integration of structure-based and agency-based appro…
Sustainable Urban Livelihoods and Marketplace Social Capital: Crisis and Strategy in Petty Trade
Urban growth has been accompanied by the development of bimodal labour markets and increasing inequalities in both North and South. In Southern cities, many of the poor have turned to the informal sector, in particular to street trade. This has resulted in a multiplicity of urban conflicts and has led to pressure on urban managers to undertake formalisation, for which an increasingly developmental approach has been advocated. Nevertheless, for tr…
In the Dragon's Den: African Traders in Guangzhou
A growing literature studies the Chinese diasporas in Africa, involved in the import and distribution of manufactured goods across the continent, identifying their economic and social strategies and their interactions with African urban and political life. In contrast, the counter-flow of African private traders to China has been relatively little studied, yet is part of significant changes in African economies and societies, and creates new inte…
The ‘third tier’ of globalization: African traders in Guangzhou
In recent years, China’s major trading cities have witnessed rapid social, cultural and physical change which has accompanied the country’s boom in manufacturing and exports. A small but increasingly significant element of this growth has been the China--Africa trade in small‐scale manufactured goods. The opening of China’s economy has created new spaces for migrant entrepreneurs capturing a share of international value chains, transforming socia…
Creating Urban Social Capital: Some Evidence from Informal Traders in Nairobi
The poverty and dramatic alteration in geographical composition of African cities have been associated with rapid urbanisation, the growth of the informal economy and migration. The latter has separated individuals from long-established social and kinship networks, and from familiar livelihood strategies. The sustainable livelihoods approach views social capital as one of the poor's most important assets in managing their lives. This paper asks f…
Asr Forum: Engaging With African Informal Economies
This article analyzes the value chain for Chinese manufactured goods such as garments and textiles sold in sub-Saharan Africa. It explores the opportunities for Africans with small, private businesses in the export trade from China, the potential for long-term business development, and how strategies of engagement have changed over time. It finds that the value chains for low-cost goods vary. There is great diversity of entry levels and opportuni…
Has Mercantilism Reduced Urban Poverty in SSA? Perception of Boom, Bust, and the China–Africa Trade in Lomé and Bamako
Inhabiting Spaces of Liminality: Migrants in Omonia, Athens
When a dominant group yields space to the ‘other’, boundaries are redrawn in urban space or time. However, as migration increases, the ‘other’ becomes increasingly diverse. Through a study of the Omonia area of Athens, this article addresses two gaps at the intersection of urban and migration studies: (How) is spatial differentiation constructed and negotiated among migrant groups? (How) is it maintained over time? Findings enrich our understandi…
The World Bank and the Street: (How) Do ‘Doing Business’ Reforms Affect Tanzania’s Micro-traders
The well-documented weaknesses of structural adjustment policies have led to a reconceptualisation of the World Bank’s approach to neo-liberal reforms. The ‘Doing Business’ reforms aim to foster a better climate for business in a number of ways. The main policy documents reject interventions targeted at specific groups but, although they identify informal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as likely to benefit disproportionately, they specifical…
Participation, Empowerment and Sustainability: (How) Do the Links Work
This paper investigates the relationship between participation, empowerment and sustainability. Using the multisectoral and multicontextual experience of participation amassed in South Africa, both pre- and post- apartheid , we address two questions: does participation lead to empowerment; and does empowerment, in turn, lead to sustainability? Further, what external factors mediate and influence that relationship? Analysis shows that a relationsh…
Resilient dwellings or resilient people? Towards people-centred reconstruction
Our review of post-disaster reconstruction in 10 countries has demonstrated some of the weaknesses in currently dominant approaches, e.g. donor-driven reconstruction and owner-driven reconstruction. They have often been top-down and exclusionary, focusing on people with existing title to land and housing, and failing to reach the marginalized, especially in urban areas. Since they aim for safer dwellings, they rarely tackle people s underlying vu…
From rags to riches? Migration and intergenerational change in London's housing market, 1971–91
In 1971 under half of London's young people, then living with their parents, lived in households that owned their homes, while well over half lived in rented housing. By 1991, now no longer living with their parents, less than a quarter of these young people were tenants. This paper identifies the components of that intergenerational tenure mobility, distinguishing between home ownership in more, and less, ‘desirable’ wards, and quantifies the ro…
A Tale of Two Cities: Housing Policy and Gentrification in London and New York
This paper presents the results of a comparative study of neighborhood change. It was performed to test the proposition that political structures mediate political outcomes. The efficacy of different political structures in formulating and executing policies and the variety of those responses to similar conditions are the subject of this report. The study investigates the role of public policy in areas subject to the conditions generally associat…
Community Agency in the New South Africa: A Comparative Approach
Using South Africa as a case study for the workings of community agency in partnerships with the public and non-profit sector, this paper focuses on community-driven developments in townships in the Western Cape. The hypothesis is put forward that although structural factors are a major influence on the success of community agency, a formal approach to project management offers a powerful tool for mitigating their impact. The paper addresses the …
Do Micro Enterprises Benefit from the ‘Doing Business’ Reforms? The Case of Street-Vending in Tanzania
The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ reforms were originally expected to help the growth and formalisation of SMEs and micro enterprises. The expectations that reforms would support the growth and development of SMEs were challenged by scholars, but the reforms’ impact on the micro enterprises of the poor has received little scholarly attention. Drawing on a desk study and on field studies of street-vendors carried out in Tanzania in 2007 and 2011, …
Spatial Segregation in Seven Cities: A Longitudinal Study of Home Ownership, 1971-91
Globalisation has been associated with the development of 'command node' cities in the global economy (Friedman, 1986; Sassen, 1991). Some scholars have argued that the social and spatial structure of such cities has been polarised, because of changing demand for labour and land. A number of debates have developed around this hypothesis, challenging the general applicability of these socio-economic trends to all global cities (e.g. Bruegel, 1996;…
The impact of a changing policy framework on isolated communities: A South African experience
Harnessing time: Reflections on constraints to development
This short piece argues that a series of progressive developments in our understanding of aid after disasters, and how we should seek to deliver and manage it, calls for a review of accountability systems in the sector. Keywords: accountabilitynatural disasterreconstructionresiliencevulnerability
A Tale of Two Cities: Housing Policy and Gentrification in London and New York
This paper presents the results of a comparative study of neighborhood change. It was performed to test the proposition that political structures mediate political outcomes. The efficacy of different political structures in formulating and executing policies and the variety of those responses to similar conditions are the subject of this report. The study investigates the role of public policy in areas subject to the conditions generally associat…
Gentrification, Socioeconomic Change, and the Geography of Displacement
This paper examines the effect of continuing gentrification on household displacement in London. The author analyzes the geography and selectivity of migration. She found that long-range displacement from gentrifying areas affects progressively higher status households. Migrations over short distances are characteristic of low status households. This bifurcation is exploreed in relation to the integration of structure-based and agency-based appro…
Community Agency in the New South Africa: A Comparative Approach
Using South Africa as a case study for the workings of community agency in partnerships with the public and non-profit sector, this paper focuses on community-driven developments in townships in the Western Cape. The hypothesis is put forward that although structural factors are a major influence on the success of community agency, a formal approach to project management offers a powerful tool for mitigating their impact. The paper addresses the …
From rags to riches? Migration and intergenerational change in London's housing market, 1971–91
In 1971 under half of London's young people, then living with their parents, lived in households that owned their homes, while well over half lived in rented housing. By 1991, now no longer living with their parents, less than a quarter of these young people were tenants. This paper identifies the components of that intergenerational tenure mobility, distinguishing between home ownership in more, and less, ‘desirable’ wards, and quantifies the ro…
Participation, Empowerment and Sustainability: (How) Do the Links Work
This paper investigates the relationship between participation, empowerment and sustainability. Using the multisectoral and multicontextual experience of participation amassed in South Africa, both pre- and post-apartheid, we address two questions: does participation lead to empowerment; and does empowerment, in turn, lead to sustainability? Further, what external factors mediate and influence that relationship? Analysis shows that a relationship…
Participation, Empowerment and Sustainability: (How) Do the Links Work
This paper investigates the relationship between participation, empowerment and sustainability. Using the multisectoral and multicontextual experience of participation amassed in South Africa, both pre- and post- apartheid , we address two questions: does participation lead to empowerment; and does empowerment, in turn, lead to sustainability? Further, what external factors mediate and influence that relationship? Analysis shows that a relationsh…
The impact of a changing policy framework on isolated communities: A South African experience
Spatial Segregation in Seven Cities: A Longitudinal Study of Home Ownership, 1971-91
Globalisation has been associated with the development of 'command node' cities in the global economy (Friedman, 1986; Sassen, 1991). Some scholars have argued that the social and spatial structure of such cities has been polarised, because of changing demand for labour and land. A number of debates have developed around this hypothesis, challenging the general applicability of these socio-economic trends to all global cities (e.g. Bruegel, 1996;…
Creating Urban Social Capital: Some Evidence from Informal Traders in Nairobi
The poverty and dramatic alteration in geographical composition of African cities have been associated with rapid urbanisation, the growth of the informal economy and migration. The latter has separated individuals from long-established social and kinship networks, and from familiar livelihood strategies. The sustainable livelihoods approach views social capital as one of the poor's most important assets in managing their lives. This paper asks f…
Sustainable Urban Livelihoods and Marketplace Social Capital: Crisis and Strategy in Petty Trade
Urban growth has been accompanied by the development of bimodal labour markets and increasing inequalities in both North and South. In Southern cities, many of the poor have turned to the informal sector, in particular to street trade. This has resulted in a multiplicity of urban conflicts and has led to pressure on urban managers to undertake formalisation, for which an increasingly developmental approach has been advocated. Nevertheless, for tr…
The ‘third tier’ of globalization: African traders in Guangzhou
In recent years, China’s major trading cities have witnessed rapid social, cultural and physical change which has accompanied the country’s boom in manufacturing and exports. A small but increasingly significant element of this growth has been the China--Africa trade in small‐scale manufactured goods. The opening of China’s economy has created new spaces for migrant entrepreneurs capturing a share of international value chains, transforming socia…
Building Back Better: The Large-Scale Impact of Small-Scale Approaches to Reconstruction
Has Mercantilism Reduced Urban Poverty in SSA? Perception of Boom, Bust, and the China–Africa Trade in Lomé and Bamako
Inhabiting Spaces of Liminality: Migrants in Omonia, Athens
When a dominant group yields space to the ‘other’, boundaries are redrawn in urban space or time. However, as migration increases, the ‘other’ becomes increasingly diverse. Through a study of the Omonia area of Athens, this article addresses two gaps at the intersection of urban and migration studies: (How) is spatial differentiation constructed and negotiated among migrant groups? (How) is it maintained over time? Findings enrich our understandi…
Seen but not heard: Urban voice and citizenship for street traders
The World Bank and the Street: (How) Do ‘Doing Business’ Reforms Affect Tanzania’s Micro-traders
The well-documented weaknesses of structural adjustment policies have led to a reconceptualisation of the World Bank’s approach to neo-liberal reforms. The ‘Doing Business’ reforms aim to foster a better climate for business in a number of ways. The main policy documents reject interventions targeted at specific groups but, although they identify informal small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as likely to benefit disproportionately, they specifical…
Street Traders and the Emerging Spaces for Urban Voice and Citizenship in African Cities
As informal commerce has grown to become the lifeblood of African cities, street trade—among the largest sub-groups in the informal economy—has become a visible but contested domain. Yet the increase in street traders has not been accompanied by a corresponding improvement in their status as citizens or in their political influence. The paper first discusses the implications of theoretical debates on ‘citizenship’ and ‘voice’ for street traders a…
Africa's informal workers: Collective agency, alliances and transnational organizing in urban Africa
Africa's Informal Workers is a vigorous examination of the informalization and casualization of work, which is changing livelihoods in Africa and beyond
Resilient dwellings or resilient people? Towards people-centred reconstruction
Our review of post-disaster reconstruction in 10 countries has demonstrated some of the weaknesses in currently dominant approaches, e.g. donor-driven reconstruction and owner-driven reconstruction. They have often been top-down and exclusionary, focusing on people with existing title to land and housing, and failing to reach the marginalized, especially in urban areas. Since they aim for safer dwellings, they rarely tackle people s underlying vu…
Harnessing time: Reflections on constraints to development
This short piece argues that a series of progressive developments in our understanding of aid after disasters, and how we should seek to deliver and manage it, calls for a review of accountability systems in the sector. Keywords: accountabilitynatural disasterreconstructionresiliencevulnerability
China’s ‘Chocolate City’: An Ethnic Enclave in a Changing Landscape
The recent rise of African communities in Guangzhou has been widely noted. To understand this ‘Chocolate City,’ with a series of field surveys in 2006-2010, we examine its different development stages and shed particular light upon its internal and external linkages. Three modalities: the emerging enclave, the prosperous enclave and the collapsing enclave, have been identified. The rise of the ‘Chocolate City’ has been mainly attributed to the ri…
In the Dragon's Den: African Traders in Guangzhou
A growing literature studies the Chinese diasporas in Africa, involved in the import and distribution of manufactured goods across the continent, identifying their economic and social strategies and their interactions with African urban and political life. In contrast, the counter-flow of African private traders to China has been relatively little studied, yet is part of significant changes in African economies and societies, and creates new inte…
Asr Forum: Engaging With African Informal Economies
This article analyzes the value chain for Chinese manufactured goods such as garments and textiles sold in sub-Saharan Africa. It explores the opportunities for Africans with small, private businesses in the export trade from China, the potential for long-term business development, and how strategies of engagement have changed over time. It finds that the value chains for low-cost goods vary. There is great diversity of entry levels and opportuni…
Do Micro Enterprises Benefit from the ‘Doing Business’ Reforms? The Case of Street-Vending in Tanzania
The World Bank’s ‘Doing Business’ reforms were originally expected to help the growth and formalisation of SMEs and micro enterprises. The expectations that reforms would support the growth and development of SMEs were challenged by scholars, but the reforms’ impact on the micro enterprises of the poor has received little scholarly attention. Drawing on a desk study and on field studies of street-vendors carried out in Tanzania in 2007 and 2011, …
Economics (17 works) · Political science (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Geography (12 works) · Business (10 works) · Economic growth (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy (7 works) · Economic geography (6 works)