Migrant infrastructure

Transaction economies in Birmingham and Leicester, UK

Bibliographic Data

ID5779672
AuthorsSuzanne Hall (0000-0002-0660-648X, London School of Economics and Political Science, corresponding author), Julia King (0000-0003-1703-1113, London School of Economics and Political Science), Robert Finlay (0000-0002-2789-2614, Newcastle University)
Year2016
Volume54
Issue6
Pages1311-1327
Publication date2016-03-15
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueUrban Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0042-0980 • E-ISSN: 1360-063X
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0042098016634586
OpenAlexW2256206838
LanguageEN
Citations received46
References cited22

Infrastructure convenes social relations, thereby revealing how city dwellers access shared resources in the context of growing inequality. Our exploration of migrant infrastructure engages with how highly variegated migrant groups develop a 'transaction economy' (Simone, 2004) within marginalised city streets, exchanging goods and services, and information and care. In the context of ethnically diverse and deprived urban places, where state resources are increasingly diminished, we explore how a precarious yet skilled resourcefulness emerges through the street. Our empirical exploration of migrant infrastructure is located on Rookery Road in Birmingham and on Narborough Road in Leicester, and draws on qualitative surveys with 195 self-employed proprietors from many countries of origin. The streets reveal transaction economies that intersect local and migratory resources, eluding the categorisation of cities associated with either a global North or a global South. Further, the lively nature of street transactions decentres western-centric measures of economic value. From the street, we develop a postcolonial analysis of infrastructure that relates properties of historic depth (power), socio-spatial texture (materiality) and locality (place

Materiality · Homelessness and Social Issues · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Urban Planning and Governance

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