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

Abstract

Global estimates show that millions of urban poor in many Global South cities embrace informal livelihoods to earn a living. Street vending is one of such informal employment. The literature has examined how state institutions use “formal” and “informal” approaches to manage street vending. Yet, there is inadequate empirical account of the governing relations emerging from an interface between state-led interventions and grassroots collective action. I deploy the notion of street entanglements—how street vendors' actions and the ties they forge are structurally entwined with state power and its broader political context—to examine this interface. Drawing on the experiences of informal vendors in Metro Manila’s Baclaran district, I unpack four overlapping factors that shape the state-vendor relationship: (1) disjunctive urban governance, (2) strong kinship ties, (3) clientelist political relations, and (4) grassroots democratic entanglements. I discuss the causes and consequences of these entwined relations and problematize their implications for governing urban spaces. Although the findings are rooted in Metro Manila, similar challenges may take place in other Global South metropolises.

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