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Marketplaces have long provided a context for observing the negotiation of everyday life amid broader processes of social and economic transformation. A growing scholarship has debated the relationship between markets and capitalist modes of production in Africa. However, less attention has been paid to the changing moral dimensions of economic life within popular urban marketplaces. This article examines the moral economy of a central marketplace in Kampala, Uganda, through an analysis of a rare archive: the records of the market disciplinary committee. We show that market vendors have responded to the expansion of market economy in Kampala by invoking principles derived from the past, including the obligation to 'feed' others. Rather than an abstracted market economy, disputes in the market were interpreted in the context of an embedded market society in which value is placed on livelihood facilitation. These findings advance the burgeoning literature on capitalism in Africa by demonstrating the ways in which neoliberal norms and values are situated within a broader moral landscape that places limits on what can be exchanged with whom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Rapid urbanization and the transformations that it brings are raising urgent questions about understanding the African city. This article stresses the value of viewing urban development through a critical lens that focuses on questions surrounding neoliberalism and the state, highlighting how such an approach can provide important insights into the dynamics of informal economic activity. Examining the recent history of Kisekka Market in Kampala, Uganda, it argues that development processes in the informal economy, even when apparently neutral or ostensibly empowering for the urban poor, facilitate forms of accumulation and dispossession that result in the consolidation of political and economic power. The destruction and rebirth of Kisekka Market, despite its changing politics, has consistently benefitted wealthier vendors and external investors, threatened to displace poorer traders and served the interests of President Museveni, the National Resistance Movement (NRM) and their allies. Exploring these dynamics demands addressing traditional political economy questions that must serve as the foundation for analysing the institutions, structures and processes shaping contemporary African cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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