This volume looks at the living and working conditions of street vendors in different cities of the world. It examines the legal guidelines regarding control of public space and the rights of the working poor to earn their livelihood, and the civic authorities' constant regulation of this space.

This volume looks at the living and working conditions of street vendors in different cities of the world. It examines the legal guidelines regarding control of public space and the rights of the working poor to earn their livelihood, and the civic authorities' constant regulation of this space.

Examining street vending as a global, urban, and informalized practice found both in the Global North and Global South, this volume presents contributions from international scholars working in cities as diverse as Berlin, Dhaka, New York City, Los Angeles, Calcutta, Rio de Janeiro, and Mexico City. The aim of this global approach is to repudiate the assumption that street vending is usually carried out in the Southern hemisphere and to reveal how it also represents an essential—and constantly growing—economic practice in urban centers of the Global North. Although street vending activities vary due to local specificities, this anthology illustrates how these urban practices can also reveal global ties and developments.

This book is the product of a study conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Ministry of Urban Housing and Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA). Its objective is to highlight some of the problems faced by street vendors in conducting their daily business and to examine how financial institutions, especially those in the banking sector, can include street vendors in their credit policies. Data was collected from 15 cities across the country. Not surprisingly, while issues such as public space utilisation have been deliberated upon at length, those concerning the nature of credit transactions and concurrently the financial inclusion of street vendors have scarcely received focussed attention. In the absence of formal credit, street vendors largely depend on loan sharks, who charge high interest rates ranging from 350% to 800% per annum. The problem of formal credit aside, another equally important factor is the inflexible attitude of the civic authorities towards street vending. Given their informal status, this is particularly apparent because they are forced to conduct business in the absence of legal protection, making them vulnerable to rent seeking by the authorities. The acceptance of the National Policy for Urban Street Vendors by a few states and the subsequent bill to protect the livelihood of street vendors should help them gain legitimacy and subsequently credit to run their businesses at proper rates. The book examines and analyses these issues. ​

Addressing the current dearth of available literature on this topic, the editors use a range of international case studies to explore street vending and informal economies which continue to be, especially in developing countries, a vital economic driver. This volume collects essays from authors around the world about the markets and vendors they know best, including studies of USA, China, Mexico, Turkey. The contributors speak of the struggles that vendors have faced to legitimize their activity, the role that they play in helping societies adapt to and survive catastrophes as well as the practical roles that they play in both the local and global social and economic system. As well as highlighting the importance of street markets as a phenomenon of interest in itself to a growing body of scholarship, this study demonstrates how an analysis of street vending can provide insights not only into economic anthropology, but also urban studies, post modernism, spatial geography, political sociology and globalization theory.

This book focuses on the economic, political, social, and cultural dynamics of street economies across the urban Global South. Although contestations over public space have a long history, Street Economies in the Urban Global South presents the argument that the recent conjuncture of neoliberal economic policies and unprecedented urban growth in the Global South has changed the equation. The detailed ethnographic accounts from post-socialist Vietnam to a struggling democracy in the Philippines, from the former command economies in Africa to previously authoritarian regimes in Latin America, focus on the experiences of often marginalized street workers who describe their projects and plans. The contributors to Street Economies in the Urban Global South highlight individual and collective resistance by street vendors to overcome numerous processes that exacerbate the marginality and disempowerment of street economy work.

Low industrial growth, declining agricultural sector and limited expansion of formal sector employment in India have increasingly forced the poor to take recourse to informal sources of livelihoods. Street vending is one such thriving source of self-employment across cities. This book delves into the sustenance and survival strategies of street vendors across 17 cities in India and assesses the issues revolving around self-created markets, livelihood and politics that are contested in public space. It also presents a conceptual and theoretical understanding of different socio-economic and policy concerns pertaining to street vending in the country. The study shows how despite the absence of legal frameworks and institutional support, these urban self-employed informal workers subsist by arranging ad-hoc alternatives, creating informal institutions and negotiating with formal and informal actors in the market. It also discusses the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014, and examines how inclusive the legal recognition is for these workers of informal economy. Drawing on exhaustive research and a wealth of primary data, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers in development studies, labour studies, economics, sociology and those in public policy and urban planning.