ECONOMIC LIBERALIZATION, REAL MARKETS AND THE (UN)REALITY OF STRUCTURAL ADJUSTMENT IN RURAL TANZANIA

Arguments about structural adjustment in Africa often suffer not just from a lack of empirically-grounded understanding of 'real markets' bu t also from an equivalent lack of realism about processes of economic liberalization and market reform. Drawing on two studies carried out i n Tanzania during 1989-92, this paper illustrates the importance of re searching the actual forms assumed by economic liberalization 'on the ground' and the significant socio-economic changes that may be occurri ng in the interstices, or against the grain, of successful structural adjustment.