The use of cellphones and smartphones for informal coordination by spare auto parts dealers in Abidjan

International organizations (the ILO, the World Bank) and public policy makers in developing countries have high hopes that digitization will formalize predominantly informal economies and thus make them more efficient. This article questions this idea by critically examining how digital technology—namely cellphones and smartphones—is used in the coordination of a dynamic supply chain in Côte d’Ivoire: the sale of spare auto parts. It first defines the concepts of informality, formalization, and digitization, and in doing so sheds light on how they are related to one another. It then justifies and presents the ethnographic approach used, along with the research sites: scrapyards in Abidjan. An analysis of the relationships between the economic actors involved and of the role played by cellphones and smartphones follows, based on field notes from the study. Finally, the article comments on and discusses the main findings: primarily that the digital tools used tend to strengthen informal interactions while also promoting a type of formalization that does not fit within government frameworks for codifying and recording transactions.