Assembling street vending

Urban Studies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 1887-1902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mojgan Taheri Tafti
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
The State ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Politics Of Resistance ◽  
Exclusionary Policies ◽  
The City ◽  
Spatially Differentiated

Current scholarship on street vending in cities of the global south have mainly focused on street vendors and their politics of resistance against the state’s revanchist and exclusionary policies. This article draws from, and seeks to contribute to, this literature by considering the strategies of, and the shifting associations between, a broader range of agents – in addition to street vendors themselves – and the ways they shape and reshape street vending as a performed and diversely constituted practice. The article examines how the embedded relationships between agents including various state entities, shopkeepers and street vendors, as well as city buildings, infrastructure and policies, have been shaping geographically uneven and spatially differentiated forms, intensity and distribution of street vending in three different locations in Tehran. To make this argument, the article draws on assemblage thinking for framing the processes and trajectories through which urban street vending is being (re)territorialised and de-territorialised. The article demonstrates that moving beyond the dichotomised analysis of power relationships between the state and vendors matters for a better understanding of street vending practices as the local articulations of the fragmented, multi-scaled and multi-sited networks of associations that are stitched into different places in the city and shape diverse socio-material formations of street vending.

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.

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.

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.

Whose City Is It Anyway?

2017 ◽  
pp. 182-198
Author(s):  
Innocent Chirisa ◽  
Elmond Bandauko ◽  
Gladys Mandisvika ◽  
Aaron Maphosa ◽  
Liaison Mukarwi
Keyword(s):  
City Planning ◽  
Place Branding ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
The State ◽  
Capital City ◽  
City Branding ◽  
State Control ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The City

The purpose of this chapter is describe why and how a multiplicity of especially diverging forces, ‘voices' and rationalities can work against effective place branding. Specifically, it aims to demonstrate by the case of Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe, that economic hardships are the major place shaper rather than the wishes and marketing strategies that may be put in place by the state. An ailing economy will naturally see the terrain and fabric of a place, in this case, a city deteriorating both in terms of its service performance and in terms of outlook. This is in contrast with the main urban planning philosophies of order, amenity, functionality, aesthetics and convenience. The post-colonial Harare has suffered major blows of trying to retain its vividness and functionality due to a number of forces including state control and interference, the consistently perturbed political economy that explains rising retrenchments, unemployment and underemployment, which has seen the ushering in of rampant informality. Both the state and the non-state actors, including politicians and households have laid claim on the affairs of the city without approaching the same with a sense of place stewardship. Proper city branding presupposes shared visioning and moving on an agreed path and trajectory. However, characteristic of Harare is disparate and fragmented efforts, most of which work against the cause of city branding. Street vending, of late, is the major cancer haemorrhaging the city fabric and outlook. Even the politicians, who have assumed a major seat in the decision-making of the affairs of the city, seem not to agree on the way forward. Although, the city is under the leadership of the opposition – MDC-T councilors, their role has not been subsumed, within the council chambers as one that matters. The councilors have largely been silenced, if not technically, co-opted. The role of physical planning, on the other side of the story, has become increasingly nullified. Some real estate investors are considering reducing their portfolios. The dramatis personæ and the effects it is inflicting on the ground needs adequate scholarly interrogation hence the line of the argument in this paper: Whose city is it anyway? Unless, the city is seen as a collective responsibility), efforts to brand will simply prove futile and a waste of time. Overall, there is an economy that needs first to be fixed and players that need aligning their inspirations, aspirations and actions for achieving a branded city. Planning has to be given its place because it provides a solid foundation upon which actions are built.

Refusing relocation: Urban street vendors and the problem of the neoliberal device

2021 ◽  
pp. 0308518X2110611
Author(s):  
James Christopher Mizes
Keyword(s):  
High Price ◽  
The Political ◽  
Popular Politics ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
User Charges ◽  
Planning And Design ◽  
Political Effects ◽  
The City ◽  
Commercial Center

In 2010, the City of Dakar published its new master plan for a clean, competitive, modern city. This plan entailed the relocation of thousands of walking street vendors to free up traffic circulation and reduce the economic costs of congestion. Unlike previous relocations, this program required the political participation of vendor associations in the planning and design of a new commercial center. It also required the vendors to pay user charges: monthly payments for the use of the center and its utilities. Yet most Dakar's street vendors unequivocally refused to relocate, citing the building's poor location, bad design, and high price. Such user charges have become a contentious device with which governments across the world are financing the provision of public services. In this article, I analyze the politics of this device by tracing the linkages from Dakar's relocation program back to the political philosophies of prominent intellectuals commonly associated with “neoliberalism.” In doing so, I reveal how popular refusal is not beyond or opposed to a depoliticizing neoliberalism, but instead forms an integral part of neoliberal reflections on popular politics. I conclude by analyzing the political effects of this neoliberal device in Dakar: it introduced a new style of political engagement—consumption—through which individual vendors could dispute their relocation. And this individualized refusal to consume incited their representative associations to extend a popular mode of valuation—negotiation—into the calculation of the building's price.

scholarly journals Embedding in the city? Locating civil society in the philanthropy of place

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madeleine C Pill
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
The United States ◽  
The State ◽  
Power Relationships ◽  
Policy Agenda ◽  
Philanthropic Foundations ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Policy Agendas ◽  
The City

Abstract Philanthropic foundations have become increasingly important actors in the governance of cities in decline in the United States. The relationships between foundation and other actors within city governance are illuminated via contrasting interpretations of state-society power relationships which highlight the mutability of ‘civil society’ as an oppositional or integrated part of the state. After detailing a typology of philanthropy of place, the twofold role played by foundations in the governance of neighbourhood revitalization in the cities in which they are embedded is explored: not only as an important source of funding and support for neighbourhood-based organizations, but as contributors to the creation of neighbourhood revitalization policy agendas. Considering the cities of Baltimore and Cleveland reveals that the policy approaches adopted have tended to align with the predominant neoliberal policy agenda rather than revealing foundation actors as activists who assist the organizations they support in exerting agency to contest or seek to transform the prevailing hegemony. This makes clear the need for rigour in defining what constitutes civil society, and points to the importance of embedded philanthropic practices in enabling civil society agency.

scholarly journals Cross-fading the City

Resonance ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Joella Bitter
Keyword(s):  
Global South ◽  
Social Practices ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Ethnographic Fieldwork ◽  
The City

Widely discussed among scholars of cities in Africa is the need to conceive these cities as relational formations, but rarely is the sensory addressed. Scholarship on urban soundscapes has tended to emphasize aesthetic and technological practices without grappling with their aural political import. This article brings together these conversations in order to address the intersections of urban sound and politics in a small Ugandan city. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Gulu, the author examines how young Acoli men use aural, expressive social practices to sonically rework the city and their place in it. Referencing the work of ethnomusicologists, anthropologists, and critical theorists concerned with sound, the author argues that practices of “expressive sociability” elaborate a relational politics of city-making vis-à-vis their intimate exchanges that cross-fade with urban street soundscapes. This work aims to amplify the importance of ordinary aural practices to conceiving political valences of relational life in global south cities.

scholarly journals A synthesis of changing patterns in the demographic profiles of urban street vendors in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 549-555 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gwendoline Vusumuzi Nani
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
Dynamic Phenomenon ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Urban Street ◽  
Demographic Profiles ◽  
Changing Patterns ◽  
Desk Research

Street vending is a phenomenon that has been in existence for hundreds of years. It has since increased owing to economic challenges experienced, especially in developing countries. This article sought to highlight changing patterns in the demographic profiles of urban street vendors in Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe through a desk research study. The aim was to sensitize local governments, particularly in Zimbabwe, to develop appropriate policies in line with changing patterns in the demographic profiles of urban street vendors. Findings revealed that there has been an increase in the number of single and married women in urban street vending; more young people have joined this practice and more educated people are also part of urban street vendors. The study concluded that street vending is a dynamic phenomenon with changes having been noticed in gender, marital status, age and level of education of urban street vendors. Recommendations were that local governments need to re-visit policies pertaining to planning for urban street vending in line with the changing circumstances. Keywords: changing patterns, urban street vending, dynamic phenomenon, qualitative analysis. JEL Classification: P25, C13

scholarly journals Coherence Among Street Vendors Act and City Planning Policies Case Study- Patiala

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 67-76
Author(s):  
Ajay Kaushal
Keyword(s):  
Informal Sector ◽  
Physical Environment ◽  
City Planning ◽  
Work Force ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Street Vending ◽  
Trading Activities ◽  
The City ◽  
Planning Policies

The magnitude of informal sector and its contribution to national economy indicates that 92% of total work force of 457 million in India, work in the informal sector. Informal sector contributes 60% to country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product). This sector shares 98% of the total enterprises in the country. As per 2011 census, Patiala has 4.46 lakh urban population served by 22,000 formal units and 7,000 informal units. Out of these 7,000 informal units, about 2000 informal units fall in walled city. This paper is an attempt to review the coherence among the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014 and the City Planning Policies by studying the provisions made by the urban local bodies (ULB) to address the issues of informal sector under this Act and its integration with the city Master Plan before the enactment and after the enactment of the Vendors Act 2014. For better understanding the author has studied the historical evolution of informal trading activities in Patiala, its growth pattern, trend, spatial distribution, socio economic characteristics, space occupied, movement within informal and formal trade and its impacts on traffic, land use and physical environment. Salient features of The Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending Act,2014 have been discussed along with the practical application of the same by Municipal Corporation Patiala and its coherence with the city planning document. 

scholarly journals PERLAWANAN PEDAGANG KAKI LIMA TERHADAP KEBIJAKAN RELOKASI PEMERINTAH DAERAH

2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Agus Prasetya ◽  
Beni Dwi Komara
Keyword(s):  
Data Collection ◽  
Economic Value ◽  
The State ◽  
City Government ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
City Administration ◽  
The People ◽  
Meaning And Purpose ◽  
The City

This research was motivated by the fact that there was resistance from street vendors in Madiun City as a manifestation of people's resistance to the country. The city of Madiun, the capital city of Bakorwil 1, Madiun, is economically developing so that the number of street vendors explodes. Therefore this area is economically meaningful and has high economic value, so it becomes the goal of workers seeking, namely as street vendors. To organize the traders in the city of Madiun and the DPRD make a PKL Regional Regulation. The PKL Regional Regulation is intended to regulate the PKL selling in the city of Madiun. But the process that happened to street vendors was less involved, causing resistance. There was people's resistance to the state, because the state did not prosper the people. The regulation made by the DPRD and the Madiun city administration aims to keep traders in order, and implement the rules, but the regulation creates resistance. This study aims to: (1) understand the causes of the street vendors 'resistance (2) understand the meaning and purpose of street vendors' resistance to the Satpol PP. (3) understand the forms of street vendors' resistance to the Madiun city administration. The approach used in this study is qualitative with data collection techniques with observation, interviews and documentation. The paradigm in this study uses a social definition. While the theory used to explain the resistance of street vendors to the policies of the city government of Madiun James C. Scott's resistance theory.

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