Contested Space
Street Trading, Public Space, and Livelihoods in Developing Countries
The importance of public space in supporting city economies and in contributing to poverty reduction is rarely recognized. Instead, public space is more often an arena for contest – between municipal governments or other vested interests, and street traders, whose activities are proscribed by restrictive social norms, ambiguous legal status, street violence, or an official response that vacillates between indifference and eviction.
Based on a research study in four developing cities – Dar Es Salaam, Kumasi, Maseru, and Kathmandu – Contested Space explores the survival strategies of street traders and their relationships with city governments, and examines the practical and policy implications for pro-poor street management. This is essential reading for all those interested in innovative city governance, for planners, NGOs, students, academics, and practitioners in Development Studies and Urban Development.
Published: 2006
Pages: 268
eBook: 9781780444703
Paperback: 9781853396304
Based on a research study in four developing cities – Dar Es Salaam, Kumasi, Maseru, and Kathmandu – Contested Space explores the survival strategies of street traders and their relationships with city governments, and examines the practical and policy implications for pro-poor street management. This is essential reading for all those interested in innovative city governance, for planners, NGOs, students, academics, and practitioners in Development Studies and Urban Development.
| Part I – Public Space and Urban Livelihoods | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Challenging Street Livelihoods | |||
| 2. Urban Public Space in the Developing World: A Resource for the Poor | |||
| 3. Informal enterprise and street trading: a civil society and urban management perspective | |||
| Part II – Street Trading in Four Cities | |||
| 4. Setting the Context: social, economic and political influences on the informal sector in Ghana, Lesotho, Nepal and Tanzania | |||
| 5. An enabling framework? Governance and street trading in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania | |||
| 6. Fulcrum of the urban economy: governance and street livelihoods in Kumasi, Ghana | |||
| 7. Poverty reduction strategies in Ghana | |||
| 8. Contest and conflict: governance and street livelihoods in Maseru, Lesotho | |||
| 9. The new urban economy: governance and street livelihoods in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal | |||
| Part III – Towards a Pro-poor Policy Agenda | |||
| 10. Street trading in four cities: a comparison | |||
| Notes | |||
| List of Abbreviations | |||
| References |
Alison Brown
Alison Brown is a Senior Lecturer in the School of City & Regional Planning at Cardiff University, and an urban planning consultant with a specialism in international planning practice. She is course director for the MSc International Planning & Development. She has recently managed a DFID-funded study on street trading and livelihoods on which the book is based.
Researching ICT Micro‐Enterprise in Developing Countries: Themes, Wider Concepts and Future Directions
Foster, Christopher
Heeks, Richard
THE ELECTRONIC JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, Vol. 43 (2010), Iss. 1 P.1
https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2010.tb00311.x [Citations: 17]A Companion to Urban Anthropology
Markets
Seligmann, Linda J.
2014
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118378625.ch7 [Citations: 0]Street Traders and the Emerging Spaces for Urban Voice and Citizenship in African Cities
Brown, Alison
Lyons, Michal
Dankoco, Ibrahima
Urban Studies, Vol. 47 (2010), Iss. 3 P.666
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009351187 [Citations: 92]A refugee in my own country: Evictions or property rights in the urban informal economy?
Brown, Alison
Msoka, Colman
Dankoco, Ibrahima
Urban Studies, Vol. 52 (2015), Iss. 12 P.2234
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014544758 [Citations: 27]Transdisciplinary Urbanism and Culture
A Street with Informal Regulation
Muktiwibowo, Antonius Karel
2018
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55855-4_10 [Citations: 0]Symbolic capital, informal labor, and postindustrial markets: the dynamics of street vending during the 2014 world cup in São Paulo
Cuvi, Jacinto
Theory and Society, Vol. 48 (2019), Iss. 2 P.217
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-019-09344-6 [Citations: 0]Politics of Urbanscape: Transfiguring the Image of Kolkata
Pal, Shreyasi
Procedia Technology, Vol. 24 (2016), Iss. P.1766
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2016.05.214 [Citations: 2]Spaces of Contention: Tension Around Street Vendors’ Struggle for Livelihoods and Spatial Justice in Lilongwe, Malawi
Tonda, Nanase
Kepe, Thembela
Urban Forum, Vol. 27 (2016), Iss. 3 P.297
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-016-9291-y [Citations: 12]Planning and the Case Study Method in Africa
Relocation and Defiance in the Dhamidja-Azikiwe Informal Shopping Belt in Enugu, Nigeria: Actions Speak Louder than Words
Onyebueke, Victor
Anierobi, Christopher
2014
https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137307958_6 [Citations: 0]In the Dragon's Den: African Traders in Guangzhou
Lyons, Michal
Brown, Alison
Zhigang, Li
Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, Vol. 38 (2012), Iss. 5 P.869
https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2012.668030 [Citations: 41]Manoeuvring the middle ground: Social mobility and the renegotiation of gender and family obligations among Chinese Singaporeans
Göransson, Kristina
Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, Vol. 67 (2013), Iss. 4 P.249
https://doi.org/10.1080/00291951.2013.836680 [Citations: 3]Contested Urban Rhythms: From the Industrial City to the Post-Industrial Urban Archipelago
Stavrides, Stavros
The Sociological Review, Vol. 61 (2013), Iss. 1_suppl P.34
https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-954X.12052 [Citations: 17]Shaping Public Space in Informal Settlements: A Case Study
Kamalipour, Hesam
Sustainability, Vol. 15 (2023), Iss. 4 P.3781
https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043781 [Citations: 6]Impacts of displacement on urban livelihoods: a railway project in Metro Manila
Choi, Narae
Development in Practice, Vol. 25 (2015), Iss. 5 P.643
https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2015.1051948 [Citations: 13]The spatial logic of informal street vending in Manila: an assemblage approach
Dovey, Kim
Recio, Redento B.
Pafka, Elek
Space and Polity, Vol. 26 (2022), Iss. 3 P.192
https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2022.2153224 [Citations: 1]The ‘third tier’ of globalization
Lyons, Michal
Brown, Alison
Li, Zhigang
City, Vol. 12 (2008), Iss. 2 P.196
https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810802167036 [Citations: 27]On the governing of ‘gray’ trading spaces in Accra: multiple powers and ambiguous ‘worlding’ practices
Fält, Lena
International Development Planning Review, Vol. 44 (2022), Iss. 1 P.81
https://doi.org/10.3828/idpr.2021.2 [Citations: 0]Unexplored Elasticity of Planning and Good Governance in Harare, Zimbabwe
Chirisa, Innocent
Kawadza, Shingai T
Muzenda, Archimedes
International Review for Spatial Planning and Sustainable Development, Vol. 2 (2014), Iss. 4 P.19
https://doi.org/10.14246/irspsd.2.4_19 [Citations: 7]Urban Informality in South Africa and Zimbabwe
The Aftermath
Moyo, Inocent
Gumbo, Trynos
2021
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65485-6_11 [Citations: 0]The Politics of Street Trading in Maseru, Lesotho
Setšabi, Setšabi
Leduka, Resetselemang Clement
Urban Forum, Vol. 19 (2008), Iss. 3 P.221
https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-008-9033-x [Citations: 18]Moveable feasts: reflections on Shanghai’s street food
Greenspan, Anna
Food, Culture & Society, Vol. 21 (2018), Iss. 1 P.75
https://doi.org/10.1080/15528014.2017.1398472 [Citations: 9]Negotiating Streets and Space in Transnational Trade Marketplaces in Oran (Algeria) and Cairo (Egypt): “Place Struggle” in the Commercial City
Bouhali, Anne
(2017)
https://doi.org/10.4000/articulo.3369 [Citations: 5]Sustainable Education and Development – Making Cities and Human Settlements Inclusive, Safe, Resilient, and Sustainable
Learning from Stable Street Vendors’ Groups: Lessons from WAMBOMA in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Hamidu, K. M.
Munishi, E. J.
2022
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90973-4_30 [Citations: 1]The logic of design: its role in understanding the antecedents of urban informality
Keswani, Kiran
Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 24 (2019), Iss. 4 P.656
https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2018.1479960 [Citations: 1]Les villes africaines et le casse-tête du développement
Förster, Till
Ammann, Carole
(2018)
https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.3352 [Citations: 4]An African Enclave in China: The Making of a New Transnational Urban Space
Li, Zhigang
Ma, Laurence J. C.
Xue, Desheng
Eurasian Geography and Economics, Vol. 50 (2009), Iss. 6 P.699
https://doi.org/10.2747/1539-7216.50.6.699 [Citations: 97]‘glocal’ movements: place struggles and transnational organizing by informal workers
Lindell, Ilda
Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, Vol. 91 (2009), Iss. 2 P.123
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0467.2009.00310.x [Citations: 19]Mapping the Spatiality of Informal Street Vending
Peimani, Nastaran
Kamalipour, Hesam
(2022) P.1
https://doi.org/10.1080/17549175.2022.2150267 [Citations: 1]Doing resistance their own way: counter‐narratives of street vending in Hanoi, Vietnam through solicited journaling
Eidse, Noelani
Turner, Sarah
Area, Vol. 46 (2014), Iss. 3 P.242
https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12107 [Citations: 13]‘Integration’ or ‘Selective Incorporation’? The Modes of Governance in Informal Trading Policy in the Inner City of Johannesburg
Pezzano, Antonio
The Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 52 (2016), Iss. 4 P.498
https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2015.1126254 [Citations: 9]Aminas biógenas en alimentos: métodos moleculares para la detección e identificación de bacterias productoras
Del Río, Beatriz
Redruello, Begoña
Fernández, María
Ladero, Victor
Álvarez, Miguel A.
Arbor, Vol. 196 (2020), Iss. 795 P.545
https://doi.org/10.3989/arbor.2020.795n1009 [Citations: 0]The pragmatics of friendship: support and speculation among young street traders in Tanzania
Asselberg, Katrijn
African Identities, Vol. 14 (2016), Iss. 4 P.308
https://doi.org/10.1080/14725843.2016.1143801 [Citations: 4]Embracing the Creation of Shared Space: Considering the Potential Intersection between Community Planning and Peace-building
Rafferty, Gavan
Space and Polity, Vol. 16 (2012), Iss. 2 P.197
https://doi.org/10.1080/13562576.2012.721509 [Citations: 11](WHY) HAVE PRO‐POOR POLICIES FAILED AFRICA'S WORKING POOR?
Lyons, Michal
Brown, Alison
Msoka, Colman
Journal of International Development, Vol. 24 (2012), Iss. 8 P.1008
https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.2876 [Citations: 10]The Fuzzy Side of Publicness: Visualizing Street Politics of Everyday life through the Lens of Distance
Saleh, Mohamed
Roo, Gert de
Shim, David
(2020) P.120633122097672
https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331220976725 [Citations: 1]Informal Traders and the Battlegrounds of Revanchism in Cusco, Peru
Mackie, Peter K.
Bromley, Rosemary D.F.
Brown, Alison M.B.
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 38 (2014), Iss. 5 P.1884
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12161 [Citations: 22]Street Vendor Livelihoods and Everyday Politics in Hanoi, Vietnam
Turner, Sarah
Schoenberger, Laura
Urban Studies, Vol. 49 (2012), Iss. 5 P.1027
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098011408934 [Citations: 92]Increasing the Relevance of Urban Planning Education in African Cities
Odendaal, Nancy
International Journal of E-Planning Research, Vol. 2 (2013), Iss. 3 P.30
https://doi.org/10.4018/ijepr.2013070103 [Citations: 3]Discussing The Use of Public Goods for Private Ends
Trubina, Elena
Javnost - The Public, Vol. 27 (2020), Iss. 1 P.65
https://doi.org/10.1080/13183222.2020.1675423 [Citations: 0]African Cities and the Development Conundrum
Förster, Till
Ammann, Carole
(2018) P.3
https://doi.org/10.4000/poldev.2621 [Citations: 9]Symbolic politics, legalism and implementation: the case of street vendors in India
Amis, Philip
(2016) P.36
https://doi.org/10.5130/cjlg.v0i18.4841 [Citations: 1]Bay Street as Contested Space
Martin, Nona P.
Storr, Virgil Henry
Space and Culture, Vol. 15 (2012), Iss. 4 P.283
https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331212466081 [Citations: 1]Responding to informality through urban design studio pedagogy
Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia
Mukhija, Vinit
Journal of Urban Design, Vol. 21 (2016), Iss. 5 P.577
https://doi.org/10.1080/13574809.2015.1071650 [Citations: 20]Reimagining Prosperity
Reclaiming Their Place in the City: Narratives of Street Food Vendors of Bengaluru During the COVID Crisis
Guha, Puja
Neti, Annapurna
Lobo, Roshni
2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7177-8_14 [Citations: 0]Gatekeeper politics and urban planning research in the contested space of an emerging settlement: reflection on experiences in Hopley farm settlement, Harare
Matamanda, Abraham R
(2022) P.1
https://doi.org/10.1080/13645579.2022.2097393 [Citations: 1]Cities of Extremes
Bayat, Asef
Biekart, Kees
Development and Change, Vol. 40 (2009), Iss. 5 P.815
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01584.x [Citations: 40]Everyday Place Making Through Social Capital Among Street Vendors at Manek Chowk, Gujarat, India
P., Neethi
Kamath, Anant
Paul, Anjali M.
Space and Culture, Vol. 24 (2021), Iss. 4 P.570
https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331219830079 [Citations: 1]Street trading in the shadows of the Arab Spring
Brown, Alison
Kafafy, Nezar
Hayder, Adnane
Environment and Urbanization, Vol. 29 (2017), Iss. 1 P.283
https://doi.org/10.1177/0956247816673559 [Citations: 7]Land Cover Change and Its Eco-environmental Responses in Nepal
The Petty Street Vendors and Their Livelihoods of the Kathmandu Valley Cities, Nepal
Sharma, Puspa
Pradhan, Pushkar K.
2017
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2890-8_16 [Citations: 3]Street Vendors in the Global Urban Economy
Introduction
2012
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203150542-8 [Citations: 0]Problems, publicity and public space: A resurgent debate
Vigneswaran, Darshan
Iveson, Kurt
Low, Setha
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Vol. 49 (2017), Iss. 3 P.496
https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518X17690953 [Citations: 11]Motivations and livelihood dynamics in the urban informal economy: the case of Dire Dawa City, Eastern Ethiopia
Dube, Engida Esayas
Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series, Vol. 51 (2021), Iss. 51 P.61
https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2021-0005 [Citations: 4]The Politics of Field Destruction and the Survival of São Paulo’s Street Vendors
Cuvi, Jacinto
Social Problems, Vol. 63 (2016), Iss. 3 P.395
https://doi.org/10.1093/socpro/spw013 [Citations: 21]Missing the point? Urban planning and the normalisation of ‘pathological’ spaces in southern Africa
Kamete, Amin Y
Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 38 (2013), Iss. 4 P.639
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-5661.2012.00552.x [Citations: 41]Public Space in non‐Western Contexts: Practices of Publicness and the Socio‐spatial Entanglement
Qian, Junxi
Geography Compass, Vol. 8 (2014), Iss. 11 P.834
https://doi.org/10.1111/gec3.12183 [Citations: 17]Handbook of Research on Digital Research Methods and Architectural Tools in Urban Planning and Design
Space Syntax Beyond Cairo Street Markets
Arisha, Amany Ramadan
El-Moneim, Nancy Mostafa Abd
2019
https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9238-9.ch012 [Citations: 3]The Multiple Sites of Urban Governance: Insights from an African City
Lindell, Ilda
Urban Studies, Vol. 45 (2008), Iss. 9 P.1879
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098008093382 [Citations: 116]Rebel Streets and the Informal Economy
Urban informality and ‘rebel streets’
Brown, Alison
Mackie, Peter
2017
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315641461-1 [Citations: 1]Uneven Development, Politics and Governance in Urban Africa: An Analytical Literature Review
Collord, Michaela
Goodfellow, Tom
Asante, Lewis Abedi
(2021)
https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3959727 [Citations: 4]Interrogating Unequal Rights to the Chinese City
He, Shenjing
Chen, Guo
Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, Vol. 44 (2012), Iss. 12 P.2794
https://doi.org/10.1068/a45612 [Citations: 9]Unsettling Urban Marketplace Redevelopment in Baguio City, Philippines
Milgram, B. Lynne
Economic Anthropology, Vol. 2 (2015), Iss. 1 P.22
https://doi.org/10.1002/sea2.12016 [Citations: 11]The International Encyclopedia of Anthropology
Informal Sector
Seligmann, Linda J.
2018
https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118924396.wbiea1607 [Citations: 0]Towards marketplace resilience: learning from trader, customer and household studies in African, Asian and Latin American cities
Smith, David
International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development, Vol. 12 (2020), Iss. 1 P.14
https://doi.org/10.1080/19463138.2019.1666851 [Citations: 0]The Right to the City: Road to Rio 2010
Brown, Alison
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Vol. 37 (2013), Iss. 3 P.957
https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2427.12051 [Citations: 29]The World Bank and the Street: (How) Do ‘Doing Business’ Reforms Affect Tanzania’s Micro-traders?
Lyons, Michal
Titus Msoka, Colman
Urban Studies, Vol. 47 (2010), Iss. 5 P.1079
https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009353075 [Citations: 25]THE FACTORS AFFECTING THE WELFARE OF STREET VENDORS IN INDONESIA
Handoyo, Eko
Wijayanti, Tutik
PLANNING MALAYSIA, Vol. 19 (2021), Iss.
https://doi.org/10.21837/pm.v19i18.1048 [Citations: 3]Rush and Relax: the Rhythms and Speeds of Touting Perishable Products on a Ghanaian Roadside
Klaeger, Gabriel
Mobilities, Vol. 7 (2012), Iss. 4 P.537
https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2012.718936 [Citations: 17]The Importance of 'Meaning' as a Component of Place Identity in Public/urban Interiors: Kızlarağası Inn, İzmir
ASADOLLAHI ASL ZARKHAH, Sahar
TUNA ULTAV, Zeynep
BALLİCE, Gülnur
Kent Akademisi, Vol. 15 (2022), Iss. 4 P.2025
https://doi.org/10.35674/kent.1022581 [Citations: 0]Requiem for Stability: Impact of the Global Financial Crisis on the World's Working Poor
Brown, Alison
International Planning Studies, Vol. 15 (2010), Iss. 3 P.175
https://doi.org/10.1080/13563475.2010.509472 [Citations: 1]Raumaneignungen, Regeln und Profite in Dhakas Feld des Straßenhandels – Sozialgeographische Erklärungsversuche auf Grundlage von Bourdieus Theorie der Praxis
Etzold, B.
Geographica Helvetica, Vol. 69 (2014), Iss. 1 P.37
https://doi.org/10.5194/gh-69-37-2014 [Citations: 1]Migration, Informal Labour and (Trans) Local Productions of Urban Space – The Case of Dhaka's Street Food Vendors
Etzold, Benjamin
Population, Space and Place, Vol. 22 (2016), Iss. 2 P.170
https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.1893 [Citations: 25]You might also like:
