Criminalizing Informal Workers: The Case of Street Vendors in Abuja, Nigeria

2020 ◽  
pp. 002190962093074 ◽  
Author(s):  
Onyanta Adama
Keyword(s):  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
The Law ◽  
Mode Of Regulation

The article examines the criminalization of street vendors in Abuja, Nigeria. It draws on the debate on informality, legality and rights, to highlight the tensions surrounding the law as a mode of regulation. As documented, ideology provides the rationale for the criminalization of street vending. The activity is deemed inimical to the modernist ideals of a clean and functioning city. Enforcement of the law is accompanied by the harassment of vendors. However, vendors remain on the streets by circumventing the law. The article highlights the shortcomings of a simplistic approach to the governance of informality. It cannot be legislated away.

The social uses of the law at a Soweto garbage dump: Reclaiming the law and the state in the informal economy

2016 ◽  
Vol 65 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-234 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Samson
Keyword(s):  
Informal Economy ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Legal Theory ◽  
Social World ◽  
The State ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Legal Theory ◽  
The Law ◽  
Social Uses

The informal economy is typically understood as being outside the law. However, this article develops the concept ‘social uses of the law’ to interrogate how informal workers understand, engage and deploy the law, facilitating the development of more nuanced theorizations of both the informal economy and the law. The article explores how a legal victory over the Johannesburg Council by reclaimers of reusable and recyclable materials at the Marie Louise landfill in Soweto, South Africa shaped their subjectivities and became bound up in struggles between reclaimers at the dump. Engaging with critical legal theory, the author argues that in a social world where most people do not read, understand, or cite court rulings, the ‘social uses of the law’ can be of greater import than the actual judgement. This does not, however, render the state absent, as the assertion that the court sanctioned particular claims and rights is central to the reclaimers’ social uses of the law. Through the social uses of the law, these reclaimers force us to consider how and why the law, one of the cornerstones of state formation, cannot be separated from the informal ways it is understood and deployed. The article concludes by sketching a research agenda that can assist in developing a more relational understanding of the law and the informal economy.

scholarly journals Raumaneignungen, Regeln und Profite in Dhakas Feld des Straßenhandels – Sozialgeographische Erklärungsversuche auf Grundlage von Bourdieus Theorie der Praxis

2014 ◽  
Vol 69 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Etzold
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Social Space ◽  
Physical Space ◽  
Social Geography ◽  
The State ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
Urban South ◽  
Spatial Appropriation

Abstract. The paper discusses street vendors' spatial appropriations and the governance of public space in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. The much debated question in social geography how people's position in social space relates to their position in physical space (and vice versa) stands at the centre of the analysis. I use Bourdieu's Theory of Practice to discuss this dialectic relation at two analytical levels. On a micro-political level it is shown that the street vendors' social positions and the informal rules of the street structure their access to public space and thus determine their "spatial profits". At a macro-political level, it is not only the conditions inside the "field of street vending" that matter for the hawkers, but also their relation to the state-controlled "field of power". The paper demonstrates that Bourdieu's key ideas can be linked to current debates about spatial appropriation and informality. Moreover, I argue that Bourdieu's theory builds an appropriate basis for a relational, critical, and reflexive social geography in the Urban South.

Tianguis as a Possibility of Autogestion: Street Vendors Claim Rights to the City in Cancún, Mexico

2018 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 306-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorena Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Urban Areas ◽  
Global South ◽  
The State ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Spatial Transformation ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
The City ◽  
Rights To The City

During the past 20 years, street vendors in various cities in the Global South have resisted aggressive state sanctioned removals and relocation strategies by organizing for vendors’ rights, protesting, and creating street vending member organizations with flexible relationships to the local state. Through these means, street vendors claim “rights in the city,” even as the bodies they inhabit and the spaces they produce are devalued by state legitimizing systems. In this article, I present a case study of the Union de Tianguistas y Comerciantes Ambulantes del Estado de Quintana Roo, a “bottom-up” driven, flexible street vending membership organization not formalized by the state in Cancún. I argue that the Union becomes a platform for street vendors to claim rights to the city, and exemplifies vending systems that combine economic activities with leisure spaces in marginalized urban areas, and circumvent strict vending regulations without being absorbed into or directly monitored by the state. Highlighting the Union’s sustainable practices of spatial transformation, and vision of self-managed spaces of socioeconomic urban life in Cancún, illuminates how the members of the Union claim rights to the city as an example of a process of awakening toward imagining possibilities for urban futures that moves away from the state and capitalists systems, and akin to what Lefebvre termed autogestion toward resisting neoliberal ideologies that currently dominate urban planning projects in the Global South.

Incorporating Media in Promoting Lifelong Learning Among Street Vendors in Ghana

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Isaac Kofi Biney
Keyword(s):  
Lifelong Learning ◽  
Conceptual Frameworks ◽  
Formal Sector ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Business Policy ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Inclusive Business ◽  
Effective Collaboration ◽  
The Government ◽  
Learning As A Process

This chapter explores media promotion of lifelong learning among street vendors in Ghana. It looks at conceptual frameworks underpinning street vending and the relevance of media in empowering street vendors. It also examines challenges involved in street vending and strategies in integrating street vending into the formal sector of the economy of Ghana. The contributions of media in empowering street vendors and learning as a process of lifelong learning fashion are also discussed. Issues emerging from street vending and recommendations are discussed. The chapter concludes that the Government of Ghana should develop all-inclusive business policy to accelerate formalization of informal enterprises. Street vendors should also build strong front, and leadership, to foster effective collaboration and partnership with media houses to aid in deepening lifelong learning drive in Ghana.

Managing Contentious Collective Action

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-129
Author(s):  
Calla Hummel
Keyword(s):  
Collective Action ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Street Vendor ◽  
La Paz ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Many ◽  
The City

Chapter 5 develops an ethnography of street vendors, their organizations, and the city officials who they interact with in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. The chapter is based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the city over four research trips in 2012, 2014 to 2015, 2018, and 2019 as well as administrative data on 31,906 street vending licenses in the city. Fieldwork included interviews, participant observation at dozens of meetings between bureaucrats and organized vendors, ride-alongs with the Municipal Guard, a street vendor survey, working as a street vendor in a clothing market, and selling wedding services with a street vendor cooperative. The theory’s observable implications are illustrated with ethnographic evidence, survey results, and license data from La Paz. I discuss how street vending has changed in the city and how officials have intervened in collective action decisions as the informal sector grew. The chapter demonstrates that officials increased benefits to organized vendors as the costs of regulating markets increased. Additionally, the leaders that take advantage of these offers tend to have more resources than their colleagues, and as the offers increased, so did the level of organization among the city’s street vendors. The chapter also discusses the many trade-offs that officials make in implementing different policies, and how officials manage the often combative organizations that they encourage.

Moving Towards Decent Work for Street Vendors in Tanzania

Utafiti ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 257-278
Author(s):  
Nasibu Rajabu Mramba ◽  
Nandera Ernest Mhando
Keyword(s):  
Low Income ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Decent Work ◽  
Local Economies ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Quality Of Work ◽  
Goods And Services

Abstract Street vending is an important employment opportunity for the millions of youth, women, anyone with very few resources and the least-skilled people in low-income countries. Its popularity is due to the ease of entry into the business as far as costs, legal eligibility, and level of education. Despite their importance to local economies, street vendors operate in challenging environments that limit the productivity, the decency, and the sustainability of this kind of work. Governments should play a central role in improving the quality of work in this sector, particularly in countries where it constitutes a large proportion of the nation’s work force, and provides goods and services to so many people.

scholarly journals FUNGSI POLISI PAMONG PRAJA DALAM PENEGAKAN PERATURAN DAERAH (Studi Penertiban PKL Di Bandar Lampung)

FIAT JUSTISIA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Herni Susiyani
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Human Resource ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
Proper Place ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Local Regulation ◽  
The Law

Sometimes Civil Service Police acts reactively or repressively without heed to civil rights in doing their operation. Then, Bandar Lampung government has to provide a proper place for street vendors as per local Regulation (The Law Number 8 of 2009). In order to prevent any clashes between civil service police and people in society, especially street vendors, there are several things which need to be done: (1) quality of human resource in civil service police unit need to be improved; (2) Civil Service Police need to use persuasive approach in performing their job; (3) local regulation needs to be aligned; (4) local regulation has to be enforced continuously and appropriately. Keywords: Civil Service Police Function, Local Regulation Enforcement 

scholarly journals Understanding a Specific Walkable Space via the Phenomenon of Chinese Street Vending: An actor-network theory analysis

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (13) ◽  
pp. 190
Author(s):  
Ziwen Sun ◽  
Simon Bell ◽  
Iain Scott
Keyword(s):  
Network Theory ◽  
Dietary Habits ◽  
Publishing House ◽  
Actor Network Theory ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Actor Network ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
International Publishing ◽  
Contemporary Chinese

In contemporary Chinese cities, the pervasive phenomenon of street vending often emerges in a predictable space where numerous people frequently walk or stay. Using actor-network theory as a conceptual tool, this study initially elaborates a set of physical and social processes of configuration regarding Chinese street vending in walkable spaces. The network analysis involves heterogeneous actors and multiple associations regarding two groups of people, livelihoods and demands, mobile amenities, dietary habits, urban micro-economy, and collective participation. The results illustrate additional knowledge to why walkability, and how a specific walkable space is configured in the Chinese context.Keywords: Street vendors; Walkable spaces; Actor-network theory; Specificity.eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.156

scholarly journals Implementasi Ketentuan Tentang Wilayah Berdagang Bagi Pedagang Kaki Lima di Kota Bandung

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-145
Author(s):  
A. Aris Swantoro ◽  
Tisa Windayani
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Regional Autonomy ◽  
The Law ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The City

In many cities in Indonesia street vendors have given a quite significant contribution to the local’s economy. However, their physical existence oftenly gives an undesirable impact to the area itself. Aligned with the concept of regional autonomy which is regulated in the Law No 32/2004 concerning the Regional Autonomy, which was later revised by the Law N0 23/2014, provincial government has the rights as well as responsibilities to manage some of the governmental matters. The authority of Kota Bandung had issued the Regional Law No. 4/2011 concerning the management of street vendors. One of the essential matters in the respected law is the categorization of the areas for vending into three zones. One of those is the red zone, within which vendors are not allowed to exist physically, nor to have business activities. Nevertheless the law aims to accommodate as well as to manage street vendors, so that they could positively contribute to the city. This research examined whether or not law is properly implemented. It is found that the efforts to accommodate the vendors from the authorities have not been carried out optimally. The only attempt to enforce the law concerning the red zone is the repressive kind, with no permanent results of discontinuity from the part of the vendors to operate their business some time after. Almost all of the vendors interviewed stated that they had never been engaged in any form of efforts from the local government.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document