Epitome of Resilience in Adversity

Cottage Enterprises Using Home-spaces for Production and Exchange of goods; Evidence from Tassia, Nairobi City County

Abstract

The article on Epitome of Resilience in Adversity: Cottage Enterprises Using Home-spaces for Production and Exchange of goods; Evidence from Tassia, Nairobi City County argue that there exist advantages in the home-spaces that enable SMEs to thrive. Thus, any challenges posed by these activities should be understood and resolved amicably in order to support the livelihoods of the majority of the urban poor who depend on them. Data used to write this paper was acquired through the use of questionnaires; administered on various households and individuals who were sampled according to the categories of SMEs that they operated. More data was acquired from key informants and further buttressed through ground truthing. After the analysis, this study found out that when SMEs locate in residential neighborhoods, entrepreneurs who also reside in these houses save on rent and travelling cost and they also make use of cheap labor from the neighborhoods. Secondly, entrepreneurs not only make use of the neighbor-based market threshold to sell their goods and services but also receive customers from all directions of the city. For this reason, the house-space can be viewed as a multi-functional-point; first, facilitating the production of goods and services and secondly, promoting exchange and finally, as home. However, SMEs were found, first, to create visual clutter that led to an imbroglio in waste management and secondly, SMEs were putting a strain on infrastructure, hitherto dedicated to residential use only. In order to arbitrate the various space contests and needs, this paper recommends for a policy shift aimed at integrating SMEs into residential neighborhoods.