Street vending represents a hyper-visible and challenging phenomenon in many global cities, underpinning urban conflict and public debates around its criminalization, tolerance, and legalization. Facing different forms of discrimination, migrant street vendors self-organize to access social and legal protection, with their movements gaining growing political influence. This presentation builds on an ongoing reflection on representations, policies, and practices shaping street vending by confronting different ethnographic fieldwork conducted since 2015 in Argentina, Spain, and the United States with Haitian, Senegalese, and Latin American vendors. The presentation underlines the multiple strategies migrant street vendors use to mobilize, obtain support from local community organizations, and adapt narratives and repertoires of action.

Speaker:

 Félicien De Heusch

LAI Visiting Scholar
Fulbright Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Cost : Free

Sponsor(s): Latin American Institute, International Migration Studies