An inquiry into the culture of Street vending: accounts from Sitabuldi Market, Nagpur
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Author
Rathi, Damini
Publication date
2018-05-28Abstract
Vendors are quintessential to Indian streets. These wandering merchants have intrinsically woven themselves into the historical and social fabric of our cities. Despite this, many perceive them as informal and consequentially illegal. For years, the country has ‘managed’ them through disjointed policy-making and top-down legislation. The government’s reluctance to accept the informal aspects of their trade has excluded them from crucial decisionmaking processes that concern street vending and blatantly ignored their rights to the city and its street space. This research argues that street vending in India is an amalgamation of both formal and informal processes. This culture is engendered through a network of actors and mediators, interlinked in a complex web of relationships and day-to-day negotiations. This network plays a crucial role in defining new socio-spatial processes that shape our urban environment. Street vendors’ economic productivity, socio-spatial relations, and impact on our urban form are a testament to their socially constructed stakeholdership in the streets of India. The way to empower the vendors is to acknowledge their stake in our street space and bring them to the centre stage in conversations concerning the design and regulation of our urban form.
Document Type
Master's final project
Document version
Published version
Language
English
Subject (CDU)
72 - Architecture
Keywords
Venedors ambulants
Informalitat urbana
Anàlisi socioespacial
Actor-xarxa
Dret a la ciutat
Mercat de Sitabuldi
Nagpur
Vendedores ambulantes
Informalidad urbana
Análisis socioespacial
Actor-red
Derecho a la ciudad
Mercado sitabuldi
Nagpur
Street vendors
Urban informality
Socio-spatial analysis
Actor-network
Right to the city
Sitabuldi market
Nagpur
Pages
119
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Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en