Addressing the current dearth of available literature on this topic, the editors use a range of international case studies to explore street vending and informal economies which continue to be, especially in developing countries, a vital economic driver.

This volume collects essays from authors around the world about the markets and vendors they know best, including studies of USA, China, Mexico, Turkey. The contributors speak of the struggles that vendors have faced to legitimize their activity, the role that they play in helping societies adapt to and survive catastrophes as well...

As economic crises struck the Third World in the 1970s and 1980s, large segments of the population turned to the informal economy to survive. Though this phenomenon has previously been analyzed from a strictly economic point of view, this book looks at street vending in the largest city in the world, Mexico City, as a political process. Employing a street-level analysis based on intensive participant observation, with interviews, archival research, and surveys, the author presents a view of political processes that provides new theoretical insights into social movements, state institutions,...

As economic crises struck the Third World in the 1970s and 1980s, large segments of the population turned to the informal economy to survive. Though this phenomenon has previously been analyzed from a strictly economic point of view, this book looks at street vending in the largest city in the world, Mexico City, as a political process. Employing a street-level analysis based on intensive participant observation, with interviews, archival research, and surveys, the author presents a view of political processes that provides new theoretical insights into social movements, state institutions,...