Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

The growth of informal employment characterizes the urbanization process in the developing countries in the previous decades. China is in the fast lane of urbanization and there are signs of casual employment in Chinese cities in the recent decade. This study chooses a prevalent phenomenon, i.e., street vending, in Chinese cities to investigate the emergence and growth mechanisms of informal employment in Chinese cities since the economic reform. The city of Guangzhou is chosen for case study. There are two theoretical frameworks in explaining the growth of street vendors in other developing countries. First, they could be interpreted as the mismatch of job opportunities against the capacity in generating employment under specific development strategy (the dualist framework and ISI strategy); or street vending, along with other informal employment opportunities, is the efficient way of doing business (the neoliberal framework). The Chinese case is unique as the country is on the course of marketization while the state remains strong. What is the role of the strong state played in contributing to or refraining from the growth of street vendors; and how the lives of street vendors are in this particular context; are the two questions to be investigated. Empirical finding shows that the revival of street vendors in Chinese cities (the first generation of street vendors since economic reform) is facilitated by a series of reform policies initiated by the state, particularly the introduction and promotion of individual business. Street vendors relieved employment pressure, met the commodity shortages in the cities, and rejuvenated urban economy in China. The returnees and the peasants in the city suburb are two major groups practicing street vending, who made fortune out of it. The current wave of street vendors is resulted from the unexpected consequences of the state’s policies, including the state’s promotion on labor dispatching regulations to lower the labor price, the land centered urbanization pushing up the rent, the persistent rural urban disparity in generating urban-bound migration, the hukou system in inferiorizing the rural migrants to the locals, and the changing labor market as more young rural migrants emerge. Street vendors in the current wave could be differentiated into developmental street vendors, who drop the low-wage income to practice street vending; and survival street vendors, who are rejected by regular job markets but have to turn to street vending. The street vendors in the recent years tend to have higher income than some regular paid jobs. Survey on their operation, commuting and accommodation shows that they could maintain they live in the city and their vibrancy is due to the abundant cheap products, as the country is the world factory; and a large number of low and lower-middle income wage workers being their clients. This study concludes that the state contributes to the growth of street vendors in Chinese cities. The strong growth momentum on the growth of street vendors suggests the current antagonistic policies against street vendors need to be reviewed. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

In an attempt to engage the fundamental issues of design that are integral to our understanding of architecture and the built environment, this thesis investigates how spontaneous architecture can transcend political and social boundaries by acting as a catalyst in the urban environment. The act of catalyzing is exemplified in the informal sector through street markets and street vendors. And while the complexity of the current economic reality in the United States has resulted in a fragmented architectural typology, the dynamic articulation of marginalized vacant space in the urban core has become a strong player in a revival of localism. The underpinning goal of this thesis is to develop an understanding of the significance that these catalytic engines play in the reintegration of cities still fighting to overcome the spoils of modernity. Through a revival of localism and a re-appropriation of urban energies, markets exemplify the bottom-up approach of incremental urban design powered by formation of strong micro economies. Market case studies we visited in 6 cities in the United States: St. Louis, Missouri; Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Detroit, Michigan; and New York, New York. The case studies were used as means of deriving at potential insights to the state of the American street market. An examination of prescription of catalytic opportunities – a dynamical system that has a sensitive dependence on the initial conditions of a place – presents a series of guiding principles for successful market design. / text

M.A. / „Street trading is an activity which involves the selling of goods or the supply of services for a reward in a public road‟ (City of Johannesburg, 2009b: 5-7). This minor dissertation is an examination of the conditions and aspirations of street traders in Johannesburg‟s Central Business District (CBD), specifically Kerk Street. The underlying rationale is the fact that, while there is a small, but growing body of literature on street traders in South Africa, there is little on street trading in the Johannesburg CBD. Moreover, to the best of the researcher‟s knowledge, virtually none of this deals with the views and aspirations of the street traders themselves. This dissertation is based on the following research question: How did the conditions and aspirations of street traders in Kerk Street change between 2005 and 2009? Fieldwork was conducted in two phases: 2005/6 and 2009. The separation in periods of study, and the opportunity it provided for comparison, was unintended and largely as a consequence of work pressures. But it proved unexpectedly beneficial. The researcher‟s original concern was to discover how traders viewed their existence and detail of the developments that they would like to see. Conditions were clearly poor and tales of dissatisfaction were predominant in informal conversations and formal interviews. When the researcher returned to the field in 2009, the assumption was that conditions would be the same, allowing me simply to update my earlier assessment. However, this was not the case. Whilst much was familiar, some conditions had improved and the traders were relatively more positive about their situation and more optimistic about the future. It is clear that the Johannesburg City Council has intervened to introduce improved conditions, and this contributed to improved morale amongst traders. It is recommended that there be continued engagement between street traders, the City of Johannesburg, and official bodies, namely the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD), Central Johannesburg Partnership and Metro Trading Council. This will serve as inspiration for more traders to learn how to grow their businesses, to ensure that infrastructure around trading is further improved, and to increase adherence to and acceptance of relevant by-laws concerning the traders.

D.Ed. / The scientific study of food has emerged as a discipline in its own right since the end of the 1939-1945 war. The need for the development of a training programme for street food vendors reflects an increasing awareness of the fact that the eating quality of food commodities is determined by a logical sequence of events that starts at the production of the food or the germination of the seed, and culminates in its consumption. From this point of view the street food handler is inevitably involved in certain aspects of nutrition, environmental health and psychology. Apart from the problems of handling and preparation of food, it seems likely that the food handler will become increasingly concerned with enhancing the biological value of traditional food. Further, there is the potential for evolving entirely new ways of preparation and handling as a result of the pressure of increasing population diversity and demand. This is likely to produce a need for the additional training of food handlers and health professionals. Street food is one of the major commodities with which Environmental Health Officers are concerned, and is subject of the present inquiry in Polokwane. This sector is a growing enterprise in Africa today: its expansion is linked to urbanisation, unemployment and lack of economic growth. Despite this, the role of street food in supplying ready-to-eat food has received little official attention; more notice has been paid to the potential dangers arising from the consumption of street food than to any benefits it might offer. This has resulted in the marginalisation of the sector’s activities. Much of the bias against street food is, however, unfounded and is based more on prejudice than empirical data. Official data on street food and its consumption in South Africa are largely lacking and few studies have been conducted in this regard. These few studies have shown that the street food industry is a large and complex sector, which provides a means of livelihood principally for unemployed woman and an affordable source of food to many thousands of people. The potential of street vendors to improve the food security in both urban and rural populations remains almost totally unexplored. Where the formal sector fails to provide opportunities for employment, people often resort to informal trading to make a living. This research has confirmed that street food is inexpensive, and immediately available to consumers. In Polokwane the sector produces an integral part of the diet that is regularly consumed by all income groups, but particularly by commuters, workers and school children. Street food is extremely diverse in terms of what is available: it includes drinks, fruit and vegetables, meals and snacks. The ways in which street food is processed vary widely and include the preparation of food on the city street in relatively heterogeneous and unregulated conditions. The potential drawbacks of street food include its safety requirements; the lack of training of street vendors; quality control of the preparation and microbiological safety; consumption requirements; and the enormous variability of street food in terms of ingredients used by different vendors and the way in which it is prepared. / Prof. H.G van Rooyen

Dissertation presented in partial fulfilment for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development Management) to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand September 2017 / The linear market model is the City of Johannesburg’s most recent street trading developmental intervention intended to manage and locate street traders in highly pedestrianised streets. The inner city of the City of Johannesburg is known for receiving a high influx of migrants from inside South Africa and outside the country seeking economic opportunities. Some of these migrants find themselves in the streets of the City of Johannesburg engaging in illegal street trading. The City of Johannesburg municipality has come up with various strategies to regulate and manage street trading including the introduction of By-laws. In 2008 the City of Johannesburg municipality introduced the linear market model as a means to provided proper structures for street traders, and models that are intended to organise them and assist in unlocking their entrepreneurial skills. The implementation of the linear market model had its own challenges, including some stakeholders believing that it is not beneficial and some traders believing that the entire process of moving them around undermined their rights. However, this research had not examined the conflicts that the municipality has with the street traders but focused on assessing the situation relating to the market, street traders’ challenges and the support they receive from the municipality. This research was conducted in the form of a case study to critically assess the linear markets located in the inner city of one of the busiest cities of the continent. The research assessed the functionality of the model focusing on the benefits that this market model brought to the street traders. The methodology applied to carry out this research does not generalise the findings for broader scope and consideration. However, the significance of the outputs through this research could be of use to provide insights within the City of Johannesburg where such infrastructure is developed. The research found that the linear market model is structurally functional but with some administration challenges. Maintenance and inadequate support by the municipality was the main challenge in these markets. This research study made recommendations to assist the municipality as it implements the linear market model in other regions of the municipality. / E.R.

Los Angeles stands as the largest city in the United States without comprehensive street vending regulation. Over the span of ten years, between 1984 and 1994, street vendor activists challenged Los Angeles to regulate street vending through the work of the Street Vendors Association. Within the same ten years, the city hosted the Olympics; the city introduced broken windows policing; immigration from the global south increased; and, a riot broke out. This thesis explores how Los Angeles’ ambition as a “city of the future” and its Mexican “past” impacted the politics of street vending during this span of time.

Abstract Street vendors have long existed and with societal changes, their business hours have changed and they have developed into stand owners in night markets. However, most consumers consider night markets chaotic, badly organized, and ill managed. As a result, the authorities concerned thought it necessary to reorganize licensed street vendors into an area which, along with the surrounding locality, could be transformed into a recreational and tourist spot. This research, based on the evaluation of Liu-Ho Night Market¡¦s licensed street vendors satisfaction towards the government¡¦s management policies, was conducted through questionnaires. In them, were questions about the management of street vendors and guidance offered to them. Researchers used SPSS as their analytical tool as well as statistical methods; including credit analyses, variable factor analyses, descriptive analyses, and examination of the independent sample ¡§t¡¨. The analyzed results are as follows: 1. The street vendor¡¦s gender made no difference in the amount and effort of the management of street vendors and guidance provided to them. 2. Street vendors of different ages at Liu-Ho Market have quite different points of view towards their devotion to work. 3. Street vendors with different educational backgrounds have various points of view towards permanent management while holding no particular points of view toward the government¡¦s guidance and management systems. 4. Street vendors of different lengths of management experience, types of business, and street vendors with different numbers of employees hold no obviously different points of view towards devotion of work management and guidance to them. 5. Apparently, street vendors devotion to their business at Liu-Ho Night Market is in proportion to the amount of the government¡¦s management systems and guidance provided to them. We will delve into explanations and discussions.

Studies on market trader activism in Africa routinely approach traders' claims-making practices from the perspective of the state's regime of signifying order, in relation to which opposition simply seeks to render itself “legible” (Scott 1998). In contrast, this dissertation contends that one must pay close attention to the multiple significations of order and disorder that exist in any social situation and which, through their continuous permeation, fuel transformations of normative plausibilities and, by extension, of the grounds for claims. With a grounding in the theory of the social and political quality of time, I show how the idea of coeval temporalities sensitises observers to the multiple sources of significations of order and disorder – particularly, with regard to subjects' relation to authority – and their creative adaptation in the moment of temporal convergence. The central marketplace of Accra, the capital of Ghana, provides the context for this study. My empirical analysis of this social arena that is closely connected to global flows of people, capital, consumer items and, inevitably, ideas, including those related to order and associated grounds of entitlement adds to the underappreciated theoretical strand the actor-centred process of translation that engenders creative adaptations between converging coeval temporalities.

Engaging Space focuses on arranging as means to engage with space. The adaptive arrangements and spatial negotiations of street vendors provide the stimulus for my inquiry. Noticing the various ways vendors constantly engage spatially has led me to observe the ways spatial practices are adapted to suit various requirements. What might I learn, as an interior practitioner, from the spatial practices of street vendors? How might this be applied to an interior practice, to inform an understanding of adaptive methods to engage with space? Undertaking a practice of vendoring, the projects then become engaging spaces - exploring a practice of arranging to produce interiors.