Jostling for right of way
Hawker discourse, legitimation, and politics in post-independence Malay(si)a, 1957-1969
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3613700 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chin Kar Yern (0009-0000-9690-7712, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 58 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1664-1684 |
| Publication date | 2024-11-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Modern Asian Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0026-749X • E-ISSN: 1469-8099 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0026749x24000453 |
| OpenAlex | W4406869410 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 14 |
This article investigates the developments of hawker discourse and movements across the Malay(si)an peninsula in the first decade of independence. Looking at news coverage and municipal records, it examines the contingent, gendered, and egalitarian qualities of hawking as labour which led to its adoption by people experiencing hardship, and influenced the ways in which municipal authorities and the public discussed hawkers. In effect, hawkers, long significant to the historical and cultural systems of Malayan trade, were recharacterized as vulnerable subjects at the urban margins. The article then explores how local administrations understood and regulated hawkers through categories of location, race, and food, shaping the politics and governance of hawkers in public spaces. To engage with such governance, hawkers formed associations that protested against injustice and established dialogue with municipal and town councils, impelling authorities to consider a more significant inclusion of hawking in street planning. Throughout the period, the potential and limits of hawker inclusion in post-colonial public spaces became subject to significant debate between municipal authorities, political representatives, and hawkers. As local administrations eventually deepened their commitment to support hawkers, they also expanded their regulation, signifying a cautious imperative to legitimate hawkers and influencing the logic of post-independence planned spaces
Independence (probability theory · Legitimation · Linguistics · Malay · Political science · Politics · Statistics · Asian Studies and History · Commonwealth, Australian Politics and Federalism · Law · Mathematics · Philosophy · Religious studies · Socioeconomic Development in Asia
Behind barbed wire
Discipline and delegation
Spaces of occupation
Health Services and the Legitimation of the Colonial State
Women and Economic Change
The Evolution of Squatter Settlements in Peninsular Malaysian Cities
The Impact of the Cold War on the Development of Trade Unionism in Malaya (1948–57)
Urban Development Planning and Development Control
Time, Work-Discipline, and Industrial Capitalism
Female Roles in Pre-colonial Southeast Asia
Chinese Economic Dominance in Southeast Asia
Immigrants and Associations
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |