Informal Economy, Public Space and Territories of Street Vendors in Mossoró (RN)

Abstract

This work analyzes the territory occupied by street vendors in the city center of Mossoró (RN), focusing on how conflict and inconvenience arise as well as how relations of empowerment are developed. By addressing issues involving the territorial dynamics of street vendors, the study examines the development and spatialization of agents precariously included in the capitalist system and their actions of resistance. Methods included bibliographic research on public space and the production of territories based on the dynamics of the urban economy; primary and secondary data was collected through the application of questionnaires and interviews with different agents; and field research was undertaken in the city center of Mossoró, observing how this reality materializes in daily life. An intimate relationship was perceived between street vendors and other spatial agents in a contradictory dynamic that swings between solidarity and conflict and between collaboration and dispute.