Informal Street Vending: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Within the past decade, there has been a surge of interest in investigating the dynamics of informal street vending, motivated by the need to address economic, social, and political inequalities. We take stock of this literature, bringing together the various streams of research in which informal street vending is integral to how cities work, particularly in the context of what is considered as the global South. The review of the related literature in this paper is structured into eight key themes, including (1) gender, (2) typology/types, (3) spatiality of street vending and public space design, (4) health and well-being, (5) individual/collective agency, (6) policy environment, (7) use of technology, and (8) links to other forms of informality. The paper concludes by outlining certain research themes that are in the process of development, identifying some understudied areas, reflecting on existing gaps, and pointing to future research directions to enable further engagement with those aspects of informal street vending research that have remained underexplored.

Keywords

• informal trading
• street vending
• informal urbanism
• global South
• public space
• urban studies