Nov 14, 2019 / Research Seminar #4 / Street entanglements

Street entanglements: Contestation, collaboration and co-optation in Manila’s informal vending spaces

Presented by Reden Recio, Chaired by Kim Dovey

Since the 1980s, Metro Manila’s Baclaran district has carved out a niche as a bargain hub for shoppers looking for affordable products. This ‘bargain hub’ appeal has enabled thousands of informal vendors to thrive on Baclaran streets, capitalizing on the district’s other functions as a transport node and a Catholic devotional site. Government agencies have thus enforced various approaches to deal with how street trading unsettles a state-inscribed urban vision. Informal hawkers have in turn devised strategies to engage and/or evade state regulation. In this paper, I analyse four overlapping issues that shape the state-vendor relationship: 1) strong kinship ties, 2) clientelist political relations, 3) grassroots democratic engagements, and 4) disjunctive urban governance. I discuss the causes and consequences of these issues and problematize their implications for governing urban spaces.

Nov 14, 2019

1 to 2 pm

Japanese Room, Melbourne School of Design

No RSVP required.