Producing and contesting the formal/informal divide: : Regulating street hawking in Delhi, India

• Autores: Seth Schindler
• Localización: Urban Studies, ISSN-e 1360-063X, Vol. 51, Nº. 12, 2014, págs. 2596-2612
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • There is a consensus that urban development schemes in India bear little resemblance to the well-thought-out plans of their genesis, and that the boundary between formal/informal is often blurry. I seek to contribute to this literature by showing how, in spite of efforts to implement a regulatory scheme, street hawking in Delhi remains highly informal and in a state of negotiated (im)permanence. I compare two recent conflicts over street hawkers� use of public space, which demonstrate that power is dispersed across a range of sites and rests with a number of state and non-state actors. I argue that preconceived notions of �formality� and �informality� are of little value in understanding urban processes, and instead it is necessary to understand how the boundary between formal/informal is produced and contested both juridically and through everyday practices of enforcement and evasion/subversion.