Identity construction among informal sector workers in Burkina Faso: identification, social image, belonging through mimetic desire and intersectionality

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Résumé

This article proposes a psychosocial framework for understanding professional identity construction among informal sector workers in Burkina Faso, where 93.5% of the active population is affected by structural informality. Facing precarity, a lack of institutional recognition, and devalued social images, these workers develop complex identity strategies. Integrating social identity theory, the concept of social image, mimetic desire theory, and intersectionality, this study argues that worker identities are forged in a dialectical tension. On one hand, they are shaped by a mimetic desire for the norms and symbols of the formal sector, a perceived model of success. On the other, they are constrained by intersecting marginalization factors like gender, education, and social class. An integrative model is proposed, showing the quest for social recognition as the central driver of identity construction, leading to legitimation strategies and the creation of resilient, paradoxical composite identities. This work contributes a theoretical framework for analyzing identity processes in contexts of high socioeconomic vulnerability to the career counseling psychology literature.

Mots-clés

career identity, identity construction, informal sector, intersectionality, mimetic desire