Let's think about the city as a stage. A huge stage. A stage where we all perform. We act in the city, we follow patterns and perform our very own role.
You might think our role as pedestrians is just restricted to spectators. We use the city, not vice versa. We create the city, it is not the city the one which creates us.
Well, there is the mistake. As Edward Soja argues "human beings-in-the-world (...) are essentially social, temporal and spatial (Soja, 2010:70). In this sense, "we are enmeshed in efforts to shape the spaces in which we live at the same time these established and evolving spaces are shaping our lives in any different ways" (Soja, 2010:71). Following this argument, we are not just the makers of the space or the spectators of what others have created. We are part of the performance of the city by enacting the city while the space shapes our acts.
In so doing, we are not just simple pedestrians who wander the city using, for example, their sidewalks to commute. The uses that we give to the space "determine how other elements will be used" (Logan & Molotch, 2007:18).
There are different perspectives and approaches to this duality of the space as created and creator. The biggest tension in between a top-down urbanism where the different power spheres are the creators, and a bottom-up urbanism where the shaping of the city, the way the city shape us and our performances within it, are defined by the appropriation of the space by people without following the top-down rules of this performance, thereby incorporating new scenery and giving new uses and interpretations of our built environment.
Let's then dig in the above mentioned approach to the city and the space through a case study: the street vendors of one of the main streets of Providencia, Santiago de Chile. The methods here utilized were mainly two: field work and research.
All my gratitude to my friend Catalina Vera for her help and for letting me use her pictures.
You might think our role as pedestrians is just restricted to spectators. We use the city, not vice versa. We create the city, it is not the city the one which creates us.
Well, there is the mistake. As Edward Soja argues "human beings-in-the-world (...) are essentially social, temporal and spatial (Soja, 2010:70). In this sense, "we are enmeshed in efforts to shape the spaces in which we live at the same time these established and evolving spaces are shaping our lives in any different ways" (Soja, 2010:71). Following this argument, we are not just the makers of the space or the spectators of what others have created. We are part of the performance of the city by enacting the city while the space shapes our acts.
In so doing, we are not just simple pedestrians who wander the city using, for example, their sidewalks to commute. The uses that we give to the space "determine how other elements will be used" (Logan & Molotch, 2007:18).
There are different perspectives and approaches to this duality of the space as created and creator. The biggest tension in between a top-down urbanism where the different power spheres are the creators, and a bottom-up urbanism where the shaping of the city, the way the city shape us and our performances within it, are defined by the appropriation of the space by people without following the top-down rules of this performance, thereby incorporating new scenery and giving new uses and interpretations of our built environment.
Let's then dig in the above mentioned approach to the city and the space through a case study: the street vendors of one of the main streets of Providencia, Santiago de Chile. The methods here utilized were mainly two: field work and research.
All my gratitude to my friend Catalina Vera for her help and for letting me use her pictures.
A street vendor is a person who sells different kind of products in the sidewalk, street or on public transportation. There are different types of street vendors: there are the ones who sell mass-produced things and the ones who are craftsmen and sell their hand-made products. There are legal street vendors but also illegal. In fact, most of them sell without a permit, making it an illegal activity. Thus, they participate in the market by breaking the rules; so continuously they have to face policeman persecutions, tickets and sometimes arrest. Despite all of that, they often show up again next day at the same place where they were caught. The reasons are many and vary from street vendor to street vendor.
In this context, it seems reasonable to think that street vendors might work as socially accepted transgression. It can even be thought that they are an accepted transgression also legally speaking, even though they have to escape from police sometimes more than fives times per day. In the case of craftsmen this is much more noticeable: even if they don't have permits --thus, are illegal-- and are caught for a policeman, they won't throw away their products, as they will do with mass produce illegal street vendors.
Anyway, and as any other kind of community, there are three main points that allow street vendors function and sustainability, which are POWER, PLACE and PRACTICE. Basing my research in these three edges, I will try to answer 3 questions about this bottom-up way of approaching urbanism: HOW DO STREET VENDORS OPERATE? WHERE DO THEY OPERATE? HOW DO THEY WORK?
But, first thing first, a little bit of context:
In this context, it seems reasonable to think that street vendors might work as socially accepted transgression. It can even be thought that they are an accepted transgression also legally speaking, even though they have to escape from police sometimes more than fives times per day. In the case of craftsmen this is much more noticeable: even if they don't have permits --thus, are illegal-- and are caught for a policeman, they won't throw away their products, as they will do with mass produce illegal street vendors.
Anyway, and as any other kind of community, there are three main points that allow street vendors function and sustainability, which are POWER, PLACE and PRACTICE. Basing my research in these three edges, I will try to answer 3 questions about this bottom-up way of approaching urbanism: HOW DO STREET VENDORS OPERATE? WHERE DO THEY OPERATE? HOW DO THEY WORK?
But, first thing first, a little bit of context:
Providencia is one of the 37 communes of Santiago de Chile, the capital city of Chile.
Here you can see where it is located within the city: From the street that demarcates the western border of Providencia to the left, we can find mainly low-income neighborhoods. From the street that demarcates the eastern border of the commune to the right, we can find mostly high-income neighborhoods. Specifically, the street vendors I'm studying here, are located in two of the mains Avenues of Providencia. The two green rectangles that this map has, correspond to the exact location of the street vendors in question. As it can be seen, they are extremely close to each other. |
Street vendors --or vendedores ambulantes as are called in Chile-- have been part of their community since centuries ago. They were an important part of its function and a logical answer to a more rural city, where public transportation didn't exist or didn't work so well.
Vendedores en las calles; aguatero; yerbatero; panadero; sandillero. En Claudio Gay, “Atlas de la Historia física y política de Chile”, Paris, 1854. Biblioteca Nacional de Chile.
Street vendors during the 19th century were related to traditional occupations such as knife sharpener, water seller, milk seller, among others.
The most common type of street vendors were the ones who wandered the city selling their products door to door. Anyway, the stationary street vendors --as the ones we are studying here-- also existed. Vendedores ambulantes, The Illustrated London News. Londres The Illustrated London News, 1842- v., Nº 2639, (6 nov. 1889), p. 623, Biblioteca Nacional de Chile.
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It seems that current street vendors are a reinterpretation of the old ones, having incorporated new relationships, spaces, practices, and motifs that are relevant to our postmodern cities. If we follow Rios' typology of spaces --although he used them for explain public space claimed by Latino immigrant in the US--, we can say street vendors claim the public space through an adaptive category, which refers to "unclaimed environments that are appropriated for economic and social uses" (Hou (ed), 2010:100), which include the street. In this way, street vendors appropriate the sidewalks as an expression of an everyday urbanism made from the bottom-up, transgressing the rules and logic of, for example, capitalism.
Let's try to de-construct this mode of appropriation, interpretation and re-creation of the city of street vendors.
We can understand street vendors as a form of individual economic self-sufficiency, or, let's say, as a kind of individual entrepreneur. The huge difference, is that street vendors work outside the structure. Most of them are illegal: they do not have permits to sell --not in the street or anywhere--; they do not pay taxes and they use the sidewalk for something it wasn't constructed that is, for something other than walking. They are an unauthorized alteration to the space.
But despite being criminals, this individual economy reflects power relationships within the street vendors community.
But despite being criminals, this individual economy reflects power relationships within the street vendors community.
Legal/Illegal
There is a power relationship between the ones who have permits to sell and the ones who don't. Some of them would want to operate legally but they haven't had the opportunity to get a permit. For these reasons exist sort of a conflict. Authorized vendors believe the unauthorized don't deserve to be there and resent them because they are competing with them without having done all the paperwork. |
Decision/Reality
Also exist a duality between the street vendors who sells in the street because it is their own decision, and the ones who have to do it because it seems to be the only way for them to make money. Among the first ones, there are some who say that they prefer selling in the street rather than working for others who will give them orders all day. Among the second ones, is common to hear that it is the only way they have found to remain solvent. |
Community and internal hierarchy
All the above mentioned could make us think that these individual entrepreneurs are actually isolated from each other. That would be a terrible mistake. Despite street vendors having some conflicts and selling their own products, they are actually working together. There exist an idea of communality and internal hierarchies that they respect. |
This kind of individual economically self-sufficient activity needs a deep understanding of the space, its particularities, their characteristics and dynamics. Place is not static or just a modifiable thing. Remember: place is not just created by us, but creates us.
Embedded in that co-creation is the psychogeography wherein street vendors have already identified the best places to sell. In so doing, they know the pre-existing social-flow but also they are able to create the social-flow that they need to be successful in their business. "Latino street vendors have ingeniously transformed auto-oriented streets to fit their economic needs by strategically mapping out intersections and temporarily transforming vacant lots, sidewalks, and curbs into pedestrian-oriented mercados" (Hou (ed), 2010;38). Although Rojas is referring to Latino urbanism in Los Angeles, CA, US, we can translate that to the Latin American reality and, specifically, to Providencia's street vendors. The street vendors here studied are orientating the sidewalk to illegal-little-vertical-markets-on-the-floor. The fact that they are located on the floor is also a selling technique, because it keeps our eyes down, limiting our vision and attention to what is happening.
The fact that most of them sell in a vertical way and are pointing our attention to the floor is also an interesting characteristic of street vendors in Providencia. They are narrowing what pedestrians can see by displaying their objects at the street level.
Embedded in that co-creation is the psychogeography wherein street vendors have already identified the best places to sell. In so doing, they know the pre-existing social-flow but also they are able to create the social-flow that they need to be successful in their business. "Latino street vendors have ingeniously transformed auto-oriented streets to fit their economic needs by strategically mapping out intersections and temporarily transforming vacant lots, sidewalks, and curbs into pedestrian-oriented mercados" (Hou (ed), 2010;38). Although Rojas is referring to Latino urbanism in Los Angeles, CA, US, we can translate that to the Latin American reality and, specifically, to Providencia's street vendors. The street vendors here studied are orientating the sidewalk to illegal-little-vertical-markets-on-the-floor. The fact that they are located on the floor is also a selling technique, because it keeps our eyes down, limiting our vision and attention to what is happening.
The fact that most of them sell in a vertical way and are pointing our attention to the floor is also an interesting characteristic of street vendors in Providencia. They are narrowing what pedestrians can see by displaying their objects at the street level.
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Where to sell?
The location street vendors chose as the best spot to sell their products is continuously created and re-created by themselves as the best spot. In this sense, they chose a location for its established characteristics --as the ones you can see in the map at the left--. The green rectangles are the places where street vendors are located within Providencia; the yellow dots are stores of shopping; the purple rhombus represent public bathrooms ; and the blue figures correspond to transportation stops --subway and bus--. But they continuously alter the space where they decide to sell. They chose crowded sidewalk so they will have buyers but, at the same time, they are crowding the sidewalks by narrowing the space to walk and by creating a distraction --their products-- that make people walk slower and shop. |
What to sell?
In regards to what product street vendors sell, there are three main types --although we cannot reduce them only to those--. The first one corresponds to fashion. One can find a lot of scarves, hair accessories, jewelry, and little bags, among others. The second one is technology. There are tons of DVDs, headphones, smartphone and laptop cases displayed in the street and sold for an incredibly cheap price. Last but not least, there are also street vendors who sell their own hand-made products. In this sense, there exists an overlap between street vendors and craftsman. You can see a short film called "Tendencias" (Tendencies) that shows the relevance that the market has in the products street vendors sell --click the button at the right to watch it--. |
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How to sell?
All this understanding of the space and its social-flow is also necessary when we talk about the techniques they use to sell their products. As they have chosen places that are very crowded behave in ways which make them more crowded. They need a way to advertise their products. That is why street vendors have their own street cries. They have a particular tone and rhythm that you can recognize with some distance --click the buttons at the left to watch two street cries performances--. Street vendors also know that they need to sell cheap things. The transactions are quick and, as people are commuting, they don't have much time and one of the qualities of cheap prices is that you don't think too much about it. Also, they know they are located in a hinge neighborhood --as was already mentioned-- wherein low-income neighborhoods' inhabitants have to pass to go to their high-income neighborhood jobs. Finally, the fact that street vendors are located in the sidewalk, where people have to walk everyday to commute, is something that make it very accessible. They do not ask people to depart their route; they are within it. |
As a way to achieve their goal of selling, the street vendors community have their own practices. As it was above mentioned, street vendors work within the terms of the social-flow this space has. Also, they are able to alter it by different techniques already described, such as selling in the sidewalk, displaying their objects at the ground level, and circumventing street vending regulations, among others. In so doing, they have their own practices that fit and respond to this social-flow.
Bags
Street vendors have created their own system to carry their products. Their make their bags with a piece of fabric and a drawstring around it. But their bags are not just the best way to transport the thing they are going to sell from where they live to where they work, they also serve to display the products on the sidewalk, and, more important, they have the quality of closing quickly if escape is needed. Click the button at the right to watch a street vendor escape performance where they use this type of bag. |
Warning system
Street vendors have a warning system they use to escape from the cops. They alert their colleagues but they are also alerted by pedestrians. Every time a policeman appears, they close their bags and disappear within the crowded sidewalks. It is interesting that the highly pedestrian traffic they look for and create as was above mentioned, is not just useful for selling purposes, but for escape as well. |
Work schedule and lunch
They have a work schedule planned in accordance with pedestrian traffic. In this sense, they show up early in the morning and late in the evening, which are the hours when people are going to study or work and when they are coming back. During this work schedule, they frequently have to eat in the street while working. Most of them bring their lunches from their homes but sometimes buy some food from other illegal street vendors they already know. |
Sourcing
Last but not least, it is interesting to know that where they buy the product, they will then sell it in the streets. Most of them buy at wholesale stores, where they can buy cheaply and bend the cost price in the streets. Also, most of them go to supply at the end of each day with the gains in sales, to start over again the next day. |
There are still a lot of things to research and learn about street vendors in Providencia, Santiago de Chile, but this seems a good first approach to understanding their appropriation of the space, creation and re-creation of the sidewalk, transgression of the market and social rules through this illegal individual entrepreneurship, tacit acceptance of the transgression from society and law/police, and , overall, it seems a good first approach to this bottom-up way to do urbanism, implementing their own techniques and practices.
If you want to take a look at the other works referenced in compiling the above --in addition to those already listed as part of the class bibliography--, click here.
If you want to take a look at the other works referenced in compiling the above --in addition to those already listed as part of the class bibliography--, click here.