Spatial Practice of Street Vending and the Actor Network Web: A Study on Informal Economic Units at Nilkhet road, Dhaka

Like any other megacities of the global south and Africa, street vending is one of the most prevalent phenomena in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Numerous laws and ordinances are regularly devised to regulate street vendors as a way for the city governments to fight an urban space war with street vendors. In spite of Continuous negotiation among the street vendors, city authorities and politicians, there is still no concrete policy for resolving this issue. This research attempts to find out the relationship between the space and politics of an informal economic unit through evaluating the existing street vending scenario at Nilkhet-New Market area in order to suggest an integrated framework for the complex assemblage of the informal economic units within the formal landscape of the city. In order to initiate this research, a qualitative study with semi-structured interviews with street vendors, city authorities and the general public will be conducted. To process and analyse data, the spatial mapping method will be used to draw the existing scenario, and the content analysis method will be applied to bring out the people’s perception and stakeholders' opinion about the existing scenario and probable strategies. In doing so, this research will contribute to the wider understandings of spatial politics associated with informal urbanism by revealing the existing situation of the informal economic activities rendered by the street vendors and suggesting an integrated framework for a sustainable solution of their coexistence within the city's formal system.

• Supervision