Street vending and its ability to produce space
Street vending is a widespread phenomenon in the cities of the so-called developing countries. However, city planning systems have responded to the situation in a limited way, among other factors, because street vending is inherently difficult to regulate, especially from current paradigms of ‘public space’. Street vending is explored as an evolving and complex system that has become capable of transforming space; this perspective represents an original contribution to knowledge. Street vendors understand the commercial potential of the streets and are able to create attractive and vibrant marketplaces. However, their entrepreneurial activities might contribute to the increase in the land value of the streets, and to the establishment of new spatial relations, which tend to transform the public domain into a ‘commercial asset’ affecting the organisation of the neighbourhood. To support such argument, the thesis uses Systems Theory as a general approach, analysing how the interrelationships between ‘vendors’ and ‘space’ contribute to the transformation of space into a ‘product’.
Reading Development 