Claiming the Streets: Property Rights and Legal Empowerment in the Urban Informal Economy

Brown, Alison

doi:10.1016/j.worlddev.2015.07.001

Cited by 52 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Licensing systems have been seen by scholars and policymakers as essential for guaranteeing a place to work for the urban poor (Roever ; Meneses‐Reyes ). These systems are essential to the urban poor living in informal, illegal, or irregular conditions, and they therefore constitute an indispensable resource for guaranteeing a more democratic and plural urban space (Brown ; Mukhija and Loukaitou‐Sideris )…”

Section: The Regulation Of Street Vending In Latin Americamentioning

confidence: 99%

“… Indeed, in 2008, the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP) argued that basic commercial rights for the urban poor should include the right to work, the right to a workspace, and the right to related infrastructure. Street traders in particular require municipal bylaws and appropriate zoning regulations that define use rights for public land, especially in central business districts (Brown ; CLEP 2008). …”

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confidence: 99%

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(Un)Authorized: A Study on the Regulation of Street Vending in Latin America

Reyes

2018

Law & Policy

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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.

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Section: The Regulation Of Street Vending In Latin Americamentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

(Un)Authorized: A Study on the Regulation of Street Vending in Latin America

Reyes

2018

Law & Policy

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“…As a practice involved in managing co-existence in shared or contested spaces, planning is necessary to create an enabling atmosphere with clear governance structures where the marginalized players like vendors can articulate their issues and demands. Thus, the ideas of inclusive urbanisation and inclusive legal order (Brown, 2017a) can serve as a framework for inclusive urban governance where planning addresses the vulnerable conditions of Baclaran vendors (Chapter 8). As explained in Chapter 8, however, there is a concern over how various players can reach a consensus in planning in the midst of issues arising from 'conflicting rationalities' (Watson, 2003), 'sectional interests' (Mattila, 2016), and 'elite capture' (MacGranahan, 2016).…”

Section: Key Findings and Their Implications For Theorizing And Policmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here, Brown's (2017a) proposal to consider streets as places of work and a 'common-pool resource' offers a promising framework that regards "the public domain of cities as part of the urban land resource to which collective property rights may pertain" (p. 89). Building on these inclusive governance and common-pool resource ideas, five interrelated recommendations can inform planning and policy-making in Baclaran and other global South informal vending sites with similar issues.…”

Section: Key Findings and Their Implications For Theorizing And Policmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the government is currently deliberating on the proposed legislation with various lobby groups, it is critical to conduct a series of policy dialogues on how Brown's (2017a) notion of public space as a common-pool resource and Bhowmik's (2010) (Brown, 2017a) to ensure that street use for vending will not result in congestion and 'tragedy of the commons' (Hardin, 1968). This time-sharing design can also democratize the access to and control of the coveted spaces in Baclaran.…”

Section: Policy Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Who Governs the 'Ungovernable'? Examining Governing Relations in Urban Informality

Recio¹

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For several decades now, Metro Manila's Baclaran district has been home to thousands of street vendors who have capitalised on its functions as a commercial centre, a transport node, and a Filipino Catholic devotional site. This presence of informal hawkers, which some government officials consider as an urban blight, has generated a range of policies that seek to manage, if not eradicate, the informal hawkers. Years of street occupancy, however, have enabled the tenacious vendors to enforce grassroots mechanisms to appropriate streetscapes. I refer to this interplay of state interventions and grassroots practices as the formal-informal interface. Seen from an urban planning perspective, the Baclaran context offers an opportunity for scholarly inquiry into how the complex spatio-political ordering and socio-economic realities unsettle the essentialist formal-versus-informal categories of work and state interventions. In sum, these findings reveal how understanding the formal-informal interface contributes to the evolving conceptual and empirical conversations on worlding cities. The Baclaran case shows how worlding practices arise from the interplay of global North-oriented planning ideals and policy approaches, the unequal socio-spatial relations, and the continuing struggle of marginalized street vendors in the global South. These issues require rethinking of policy direction and planning trajectory.iii

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Organizing the Informal Economy in Senegal

Greven

2017

Work, Institutions and Sustainable Livelihood

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Claiming the Streets: Property Rights and Legal Empowerment in the Urban Informal Economy

Cited by 52 publications

References 25 publications

(Un)Authorized: A Study on the Regulation of Street Vending in Latin America

(Un)Authorized: A Study on the Regulation of Street Vending in Latin America

Who Governs the 'Ungovernable'? Examining Governing Relations in Urban Informality

Organizing the Informal Economy in Senegal

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