Abstract
In contemporary Indian megacities, the spatial politics of street vending occupies a contested threshold between informal livelihoods and technocratic urban governance. This article presents a 14-month multi-sited ethnographic investigation into street vendor collectives in Mumbai, focusing on how informal workers navigate the structural ambiguities of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act of 2014. Drawing on participant observation, spatial mapping, and 54 in-depth interviews conducted across major transit nodes—specifically Dadar, Bandra, and Kurla—the study examines how vendors transition from decentralized survival tactics to organized policy contestation. We document the everyday practices of spatial claims-making, the routinized regimes of municipal eviction and informal rent extraction (hafta), and the structural inertia surrounding the formation and operation of Town Vending Committees (TVCs). We conceptualize these dynamics through the framework of 'negotiated informality,' demonstrating that vendor collectives do not merely resist municipal discipline but actively co-constitute local regulatory practices through legal literacy, strategic visibility, and institutional bargaining. By documenting how vendors navigate biometric enumeration and municipal demarcation regimes, this study advances sociological understandings of Southern urbanism, informal labor organization, and the micro-politics of public space.
