It's not just about money

Master's Thesis from the year 2010 in the subject Ethnology / Cultural Anthropology grade: With Distinction course: Informal economy Colombia ethnography Latin America anthropology labor economics history ethnology language: English abstract: This research focuses on the performances of peddlers buskers and panhandlers who are said to practice rebusque on the main transportation system of downtown Bogotá Colombia. Rebusque refers to informal workers who forge self-employment to make a living. Through rebusque performances on the buses such workers challenge misleading perceptions of their work offer social critiques and forge relations of solidarity with bus drivers and riders. This solidarity emerges from Colombians' shared nationalist and religious beliefs paired with their broad dissatisfaction with their country's socio-economic order and neoliberal government. Following Ortner's idea of serious games De Certeau's notion of tactics and Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology I examine rebusque performers' self-reliance as a form of social agency accrued by negotiating earnings through expressions of religious and nationalist critiques and aspirations which inspire collective participation. Thus informal workers often refugees from Colombia's rural violence gain peaceable earnings within Bogotá's buses.