Hustle in the Sidewalk

Triangular Contestations Between Hawkers, Walkers, and Coppers in the Kathmandu Valley

Bibliographic Data

ID2309159
AuthorsNirmal Acharya (0000-0003-0677-4624, Tribhuvan University, corresponding author), Roshan Bahadur Jagari (Tribhuvan University)
Year2024
Volume59
Issue8
Pages2270-2283
Publication date2024-12-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Asian and African Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0021-9096 • E-ISSN: 1745-2538
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00219096231153158
OpenAlexW4319785733
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited13

Sidewalks in the Kathmandu Valley are punctuated with vendors busy selling their merchandise to the pedestrians. Notwithstanding that street vending provides thriving opportunities for earning to the lower class, it takes a heavy toll on their health due to the relentless inhale of pernicious air. Disinterested pedestrians feel their spaces being thronged and contested by the vendors and their customers who generally take more time to make a deal through bargaining. The city police, on the other hand, treat the vendors, in many places and occasions, as the 'wretched of the earth' in their routine patrols. The resistance of the vendors is complex and dynamic, and entails layered responses varying from symbolic, talking violence of the pedestrians to the batons of city police. Through interviews and observation, this research aims to shed light on the vendor negotiations, and resistance strategies vis-à-vis pedestrians, and the city police

Advertising · Business · Civil engineering · Criminology · Negotiation · Pedestrian · Political science · Resistance (ecology · Social science · Sociology · Thriving · Toll · Vendor · Engineering · Law · Medicine · Public Spaces through Art · Urban Planning and Governance

Tools

Open DOI