The City as People’s Territory: Revisiting Urban Informality

• published: 27 Oct 2015
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Keynote presentation by Ananya Roy - Professor of Urban Planning and Social Welfare, Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy, and inaugural Director of The Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin as part of the conference: Contesting the Streets II: Vending and Public Space in Global Cities. This conference is sponsored by SLAB, the Spatial Analysis Lab at USC Price; The César E. Chávez Department for Chicana/o Studies at UCLA, and the USC Bedrosian Center on Governance. In large cities around the world, the most contested public space is the streets and accompanying sidewalks. As a result of historic migration and immigration to urban centers, the spatial projects vying for this space have multiplied. In particular, the growth of street vending causes us to reconsider some of the fundamental concepts that we have used to understand the city. Vending can be seen as a private taking of public space. It can contribute to civic vitality as well as be an impediment to traffic flow. Vendors are often micro-entrepreneurs who cannot access the private real estate market as spaces for livelihood. The issues about the legitimate use of public space, the right to the city, and local ordinance enforcement/dereliction are often complicated by class conflict as well as the street vendors’ diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds, and their migrant/immigrant status. As a result, recent street vendors’ challenges and protests have been important catalysts with far-reaching political implications about the future of our urban societies. This symposium brings together scholars and practitioners in dynamic dialogue to present empirical cases (both contemporary and historical) and larger global trends. While vending and public space has been the subject of acrimonious debate in many cities between vendors, local government, formal business and property owners, community organizations, pedestrians and alternative mobility groups, it has also been the impetus for some innovative mixed-use and inclusive arrangements for sharing urban space. Since in our largest, densest cities, local governments, urban planners, and citizens will have to find new ways to plan, design, and govern this precious urban public space, this symposium particularly seeks to shed light on possible futures and the key narratives that will need to be re-written. Towards this end, this symposium extends the first Contesting the Street conference that was held at UCLA in 2010, by expanding the geographic focus of the inquiry beyond (while still including) the Americas to gain comparative insights. Main Presentation: “The City as People’s Territory: Revisiting Urban Informality” Ananya Roy is Professor of Urban Planning and Social Welfare, Meyer and Renee Luskin Chair in Inequality and Democracy, and inaugural Director of The Institute on Inequality and Democracy at UCLA Luskin. This conference is sponsored by SLAB, the Spatial Analysis Lab at USC Price; The César E. Chávez Department for Chicana/o Studies at UCLA, and the USC Bedrosian Center on Governance. Symposium Organizers: Annette M. Kim, Associate Professor at the Price School of Public Policy and Director of SLAB, Price School of Public Policy, USC Abel Valenzuela Jr., Chair of the César E. Chávez Department for Chicana/o Studies and Professor of Chicana/o Studies and Urban Planning, UCLA Raphael Bostic, Bedrosian Chair Professor and the Director of the Bedrosian Center on Governance, Price School of Public Policy, USC.