Abstract EN:

The thesis deals with the "informal sector", tackled through not its dichotomy aspect that is, a modern sector versus an informal one, but through its organic links with the capitalistic forms of production. The "informal sector" originates in brazzaville in the context of the colonial economy. Many explanations can be put forward for example, the inefficiency of the modern productive system in not supplying job demands, the lowness of paid income, the excessive cost of goods produced by what is commanly considered as the modern system. The "informal" sector holds such an important place in the socioeconomic life of brazzaville inhabitants that it arises the question of its longer term future. The answer to this question has been provided by a close survey carried out on the spat among a group of craftsmen involved in coach welding and working in brazzaville. This survey brings out this fact : understanding the present craft implies a better knowing of its evolutionary process since the first contacts between europe an africa. After analysing the whole mechanisms of the "informal" sector working, it appears that its dynamism remains a big issue because the first purpose of craftsmen is not accumulating, as their whole income is swallowed in the family caring. In a context of "under-development" in which the uncertainty of human living prevails, the little entrepreneur is himself subjected to the constraint of the instant caring ; he lives from hand to mouth, and for the matter of that he is not so much different from the mass of urban population.