Cleaning up the City: A Study on the Removal of Street Vendors from Downtown Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Abstract

This article presents a critical analysis of the relocation of street peddlers in Belo Horizonte, Brazil to the Shopping Popular indoor markets of the city. In its attempt to "clean up" downtown through such relocation, city council affected the dissolution of the informal work of the city's peddlers and toreros and increased the precariousness of the political and social conditions these vendors face at work. We conducted a site visit and gathered data using discourse analysis, interviews, and desk research. We argue that city council's public focus on urban revitalization served as a pretext that allowed for the serious social problems underlying the peddler issue to go unaddressed. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. JEL Classifications: J58Keywords: Brazil, informal economy, peddlers, public policies, critical management studies Résumé Cet article présente une analyse critique de la délocalisa-tion des colporteurs de Belo Horizonte (Brésil) à l'intérieur du centre commercial Shopping Popular. En essayant d'utiliser la délocalisation pour «nettoyer» le centre-ville, le Conseil municipal a provoqué la dissolution du secteur informel et aggravé la précarité politique et sociale des colporteurs et des toreros. Pour réaliser l'étude, nous avons effectué une descente sur le terrain et recueilli des données par l'analyse du discours, des entrevues et la recherche documentaire. L'étude soutient que l'accent que le Conseil municipal met sur la revitalisation urbaine lui permet d'éluder les graves problèmes sociaux auxquels les colporteurs sont confrontés.

Revisiting policy epistemologies on urban informality: Towards a post-dualist view

“…One aspect of the program entailed removing certain activities, including street vending, which was perceived to be threatening the general vitality of the area (Crossa, 2009). In Belo Horizonte, Brazil, this type of urban revitalization locally called Gestão de Cidades (Management of Cities) enabled the government to build an indoor market for the relocation of street vendors (Carrieri & Murta, 2011). In the guise of reinvigorating the city centre, Carrieri and Murta (2011) contend that vendor relocation actually aimed at maximizing profit through a neo-liberal kind of management.…”

“…First, the hostile attitude towards informal activities is often coupled with a preference for formal or state-controlled arrangements (Yatmo, 2008;Musoni, 2010;Carrieri & Murta, 2011;Rukmana, 2011;Gibbings, 2013;Flock & Breitung, 2016) to promote a 'global city' image (Donovan, 2008;Xue & Huang, 2015;Hanser, 2016). To a great extent, this policy reflects the dualistic framing discussed in the earlier section.…”

Who Governs the 'Ungovernable'? Examining Governing Relations in Urban Informality

“…This `recovery' of Bogotá's public space focused solely on regaining it from street vendors while ignoring the illegal invasion by cars and private formal businesses (Hunt, 2009 (Carrieri & Murta, 2011). In the guise of reinvigorating the city centre, the vendor relocation actually aimed at maximizing profit through a neo-liberal kind of management (Carrieri & Murta, 2011).…”

“…This has a spatial implication as the hawkers need to vacate their vending areas and move to designated places where the state could regulate them. In many instances, relocation has led to declining income levels with mixed working conditions (Carrieri & Murta, 2011;Donovan, 2008). In the long run, vendors abandon the formalised market spaces and then return to vending areas, as in the case of cities across Africa (Hansen, 2004), Asia (Smart, 1986) and Latin America (Carrieri & Murta, 2011;Cross, 1998a;Donovan, 2008;Middleton, 2003).…”

“…In many instances, relocation has led to declining income levels with mixed working conditions (Carrieri & Murta, 2011;Donovan, 2008). In the long run, vendors abandon the formalised market spaces and then return to vending areas, as in the case of cities across Africa (Hansen, 2004), Asia (Smart, 1986) and Latin America (Carrieri & Murta, 2011;Cross, 1998a;Donovan, 2008;Middleton, 2003). In some cases, relocation has failed due to ill-conceived location, bureaucratic and costly regulations, and the lack of customer drawing power of the chosen spaces (Donovan, 2008;Weng & Kim, 2016).…”