The regulation of vending in the urban marketplace system of Oaxaca, Mexico

This dissertation argues that marketplaces, comprised of independent vendors operating in public spaces, cannot be understood without systematic attention to regulation: the rules that govern individual commercial behavior and the allocation of benefits to vendors. Despite the profound consequences of regulation on marketplace dynamics, information on the regulation of vending in the ethnographic literature has been scattered and fragmentary. In addition, there has been a tendency to view regulation as necessarily oppressive to vendors, a position that has led to vague and misguided policy recommendations.; This dissertation is a comprehensive study of the regulation of the urban marketplace system of the City of Oaxaca, Mexico. It is based on fifteen months of participant-observation fieldwork carried out between April 1996 and September 1998. Research was designed to elicit multiple perspectives from both vendors and the agents of regulation operating in a variety of enclosed permanent marketplaces, open-air marketplaces, and other public spaces where vending in Oaxaca City takes place.; By no means do Oaxaca's vendors operate autonomously or beyond the scope of regulation; rather, they act within a highly complex regulatory framework. This dissertation describes the system of rules governing vending as well as the social organization of the entities involved in regulation, of which the municipality and vendors' unions are primary. Although this is not a historical study, interviews, archival documents and prior studies of Oaxaca's marketplace system indicate that vending has been regulated by the municipality at least since the latter part of the nineteenth century. Vendors' unions have been involved in regulation since the 1940s.; The existence of a highly complex regulatory system should not be equated with the existence of a highly oppressive regulatory system. This dissertation challenges the position, commonly taken in the anthropological and sociological literature on vending, that regulation is necessarily damaging to vendors. It is argued instead that, although regulation may be costly and even do violence to some vendors at some times, ultimately, vendors rely on a regulatory system to ensure their commercial viability.