Making the invisible visible in city spaces
The hidden labour practices of market traders
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10864697 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sophie Watson (0000-0002-1919-1498, Open University, UK), Emil Van Eck (0000-0003-3689-9399, University of Amsterdam, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 63 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 173-188 |
| Publication date | 2026-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0042-0980 • E-ISSN: 1360-063X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00420980251344160 |
| OpenAlex | W4411740536 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 37 |
Research on traditional street markets has demonstrated how markets facilitate the development of diverse social interactions among visitors and provide livelihood-building opportunities for market traders, especially for immigrant newcomers. In this article, we suggest that the literature has, thus far, tended to pay less attention to the everyday work practices of traders that are central to both their livelihood-building opportunities and the creation of street markets as important public spaces of social interactions. Through a case study of the Walthamstow market in East London, we study the labour practices of traders and the spaces they inhabit as workers, both inside the market and outside, to reveal the relatively hidden and underexplored work and skills that bring street markets into being. The ethnographic research findings show that the everyday practices conducted by traders involve night work, long working days and physically strenuous work activities. At the same time, traders are able to negotiate these precarious working conditions through their social relationships and processes of enskillment. We conclude that it is only by making the invisible visible that the labour and skills of those who make our urban spaces work can be recognised, (re-)valued and legitimised. This is not only important in providing ammunition for strategies to improve the generally precarious working conditions of traders, but it can also be used as leverage in coalition-building strategies to resist the additional threat of displacement that so many traders around the world face as the result of neoliberal redevelopment processes
Business · Economic geography · Economics · Labour economics · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Employment and Welfare Studies · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism
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Contested marketplaces
Moving marketplaces
Stigmatizing Street Vendors and Market Traders
Traditional Retail Markets
Street markets, urban development and immigrant entrepreneurship
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Street Vendor Livelihoods and Everyday Politics in Hanoi, Vietnam
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All Eyes on Me
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The Role of Traders and Small Businesses in Urban Social Movements
Global Peddlers and Local Networks
Maintenance Work and the Performativity of Urban Inscriptions
The City as Assemblage
Silencing to Give Voice
Moving behind the scenes of public space
The living building
Rendering Istanbul's Periodic Bazaars Invisible
A geography of big things
Making the market place
Lively Infrastructure
Creating a Market Where There Is None
Urban markets and diversity
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |