Cleaning up the City: A Study on the Removal of Street Vendors from Downtown Belo Horizonte, Brazil

In: Canadian journal of administrative sciences: Revue canadienne des sciences de l'administration, Band 28, Heft 2, S. 217-225

Abstract

AbstractThis article presents a critical analysis of the relocation of street peddlers in Belo Horizonte, Brazil to the Shopping Popular indoor markets of the city. In its attempt to "clean up" downtown through such relocation, city council affected the dissolution of the informal work of the city's peddlers and toreros and increased the precariousness of the political and social conditions these vendors face at work. We conducted a site visit and gathered data using discourse analysis, interviews, and desk research. We argue that city council's public focus on urban revitalization served as a pretext that allowed for the serious social problems underlying the peddler issue to go unaddressed. Copyright © 2011 ASAC. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.