Surviving between market and state
Street vending in China’s socialist market economy – the case of Xi’an
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12714089 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mengyuan Wang (0000-0002-1446-9980, Mengyuan Wang is a PhD candidate in the School of Geography and Planning at Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, UK CF10 3WA, corresponding author), Alison Brown (0000-0003-3998-7212, Alison Brown is Professor in the Cardiff School of Geography and Planning, Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building, King Edward VII Avenue Cardiff, Wales, UK CF10 3WA) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Pages | 1-28 |
| Publication date | 2025-11-21 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Development Planning Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1474-6743 • E-ISSN: 1478-3401 |
| Publisher | Liverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.3828/idpr.2025.25 |
| OpenAlex | W4416502370 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 46 |
Street vending, as a vital component of China’s urban economy, is generally framed as a marginal and informal activity subject to uniform state control. This paper challenges that view through a comparative case study of Xi’an – Liyuan (an urban district) and Ganjia (an urban village) – to examine how vendors navigate spatial constraints, supply chains and regulatory regimes shaped by the interplay between market forces and differentiated state control. The findings reconceptualise street vending as an integral part of China’s evolving urban economy, revealing that vendors are not passive survivors but active economic agents who engage in structured supply chains, adopt digital technologies and leverage kinship networks. The paper further uncovers how an urban-village dual structure of state control produces uneven conditions for vending livelihoods and shapes different possibilities for economic agency
Dual (grammatical number · Entrepreneurship · Informal sector · Leverage (statistics · Livelihood · Socialist market economy · State (computer science · Urban economics · China's Global Influence and Migration · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact
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| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |