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(Un)Authorized: A Study on the Regulation of Street Vending in Latin America
Author(s) -
MenesesReyes Rodrigo
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/lapo.12106
Subject(s) - latin americans , vulnerability (computing) , work (physics) , state (computer science) , modalities , political science , permission , face (sociological concept) , legal certainty , legal status , law , business , public relations , public administration , sociology , computer security , engineering , social science , mechanical engineering , algorithm , computer science
This article offers an examination of the official rules that participate in the organization of street vending activities in Latin American cities. It does so by explaining the legal assemblages that serve to define how, where, and by whom certain Latin American public spaces may be occupied, and by empirically illustrating the way in which the legal status of street vendors—that is, whether or not they are willing or able to get official recognition to work in these public spaces—affects the way they use and occupy the urban landscape. The information gathered here suggests that securing access to official permission to work on the streets does significantly affect vendors' locations as well as their working modalities. The subsequent analysis also illustrates a significant relationship between vendors' legal status and specific interactions with urban authorities and other actors. These findings suggest that, although law cannot prevent the unauthorized occupation of public spaces for commercial purposes, it could certainty avert the reproduction of other illegal practices and, perhaps most importantly, protect the urban poor from the vulnerability they face before state and nonstate violence.