The Edge of the Law: Street Vendors and the Erosion of Citizenship in São Paulo

How street vendors tangle with the law in São Paulo, Brazil.

The daily delights and conveniences that any city dweller has become accustomed to, such as cold water bottles on a summer afternoon in the park or a popsicle from a tray while you’re sitting in traffic, do not come cheap for those offering them. With a little initiative and very little startup money, an enterprising individual might sell you any of these things. Such vendors form a significant share of the workforce in São Paulo, Brazil. Some have the right to practice their trade; others do not.

In The Edge of the Law, sociologist Jacinto Cuvi introduces us to this world of street vendors to tease out the relationship between constructions of legality and the experience of citizenship. As the government undertakes a large-scale plan to cancel street vending licenses and evict street vendors, Cuvi reveals how the rights of informal workers can be revoked or withheld, and how the lines can be redrawn between those whose work is ＂legal＂ and those who work running from the police.

Alongside the mechanics of disenfranchisement, Cuvi captures the lived experience of criminalization, dissecting the distribution of (shallow) rights among these vendors as they continually reinvent strategies to etch out a living while dealing with the constraints and pressures of ＂informal citizenship＂ at the edge of the law.

Jacinto Cuvi is associate professor of sociology and development studies at the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium.