Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Production of Latino Vending "Street-Scapes" in Los Angeles

博士论文研究：洛杉矶拉丁裔自动售货机“街景”的制作

• 批准号: 0425804
• 负责人: Laura Pulido
• 金额: $ 1万
• 依托单位: University of Southern California
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-09-01 至 2006-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0425804&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Production; Latino

Street vending is an economic practice exercised by millions of people around the world. Although often attributed to third-world economies, it is a phenomenon that it is visible in many cities in the United States. This doctoral dissertation research project examines the landscapes in which Latino street vendors exercise their daily informal economic practices in Los Angeles, a city where many residents (especially Latinos) favor vendors who recreate the cultural and informal economic spaces of their countries of origin. Immigrant vending practices commonly transform street corners, yards, and parking lots into informal commercial profit-making sites. This reconfiguration of urban space not only shapes immigrants' and immigrant vendors' experience of everyday life. It also shapes the urban landscape around them as well. Through the use of various qualitative methods, especially field observation, semi-structured interviews, photo-elicitation, and photo documentation, the project will examine (1) how notions of "place" shape urban cultural landscapes of Latino street vendors in Los Angeles, (2) how large-scale formal economic processes shape and inform informal vending landscapes, and (3) how state enforcements, regulations, and notions of "illegalities" imposed on "brown bodies" in relation to street vendor's daily life, contribute to the production of cultural landscapes. The dialectic process of vendors creating urban cultural landscapes is important for understanding how the state at various scales intersects in the local, where tensions are created between the local-state and the vendors through the enforcement of code regulations and the surveillance of bodies. These tensions between vendors and the local state inform the production of vendor landscapes. This dialectical process shapes the collective or individual agency of the vendors. In other words, by analyzing the actors such as vendors, local business owners, and street vendors in relation to the local state (city council, code enforcers and police department), one begins to understand how street vendors exercise agency. The interplay of large-scale processes, such as the global economy and international migration together with localized social and economic efforts by vendors creates spaces where agency, individual or collective, informs the production of urban cultural landscapes.Current theories and empirical studies that focus on informal economies argue that local informal sectors develop as informal employment opportunities resulting from global economic and cultural processes in which immigrants seize the opportunities and participate as informal labor. How these informal landscapes are actually produced at the local scale (street) has not been analyzed, however. Furthermore, the studies do not focus on the role informal vending plays in shaping immigrant's daily lives. This study explores the effects of the informal economy at the local scale, particularly in global cities like Los Angeles. By examining the experiential nature of Latino street vending practices, this study furthers social science understandings of the informal economy. It highlights how, why, and where it functions as well as how this informal-labor market is racialized and gendered. By privileging voices of vendors, in particular women, whose daily lives shape and inform the urban landscape, this study links the street corner to interrelated global processes. Finally, by focusing this research on human and economic rights for street vendors and their families, this study will facilitate the development of policy and programs that serve and affect this population. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.

街头贩卖是全世界数百万人从事的一种经济活动。 尽管这种现象通常被归因于第三世界经济体，但这种现象在美国许多城市都可见。 这个博士论文研究项目研究了洛杉矶拉丁裔街头小贩进行日常非正式经济实践的情况，在这座城市，许多居民（尤其是拉丁裔）青睐那些重建原籍国文化和非正式经济空间的小贩。 移民贩卖行为通常将街角、庭院和停车场转变为非正式的商业盈利场所。 这种城市空间的重新配置不仅塑造了移民和移民商贩的日常生活体验。 它还塑造了他们周围的城市景观。 通过使用各种定性方法，特别是实地观察、半结构化访谈、照片启发和照片记录，该项目将研究（1）“地点”的概念如何塑造洛杉矶拉丁裔街头小贩的城市文化景观，（2）大规模的正规经济过程如何塑造和影响非正式的自动售货景观，以及（3）国家的执法、法规和概念如何影响非正式的自动售货景观。 与街头小贩的日常生活相关的“棕色身体”强加的“非法行为”有助于文化景观的产生。 商贩创造城市文化景观的辩证过程对于理解不同规模的国家如何在地方相交非常重要，在当地，通过执行法规和对机构的监视，在地方国家和商贩之间造成了紧张关系。 供应商和当地政府之间的这些紧张关系影响了供应商景观的产生。 这个辩证的过程塑造了供应商的集体或个人机构。 换句话说，通过分析与当地国家（市议会、执法者和警察部门）相关的摊贩、当地企业主和街头摊贩等参与者，人们开始了解街头摊贩如何行使代理权。 全球经济和国际移民等大规模进程的相互作用，加上供应商的本地化社会和经济努力，创造了空间，个人或集体的机构为城市文化景观的生产提供信息。当前关注非正规经济的理论和实证研究认为，当地非正规部门发展为非正规就业机会，这是全球经济和文化进程的结果，移民抓住了机会并作为非正规劳动力参与其中。 然而，这些非正式景观实际上是如何在当地规模（街道）产生的尚未得到分析。 此外，这些研究并未关注非正式自动售货机在塑造移民日常生活中所发挥的作用。 本研究探讨了非正规经济对地方规模的影响，特别是在洛杉矶等全球城市。通过研究拉丁裔街头售货行为的体验性质，本研究进一步加深了对非正规经济的社会科学理解。 它强调了它的运作方式、原因和地点，以及这个非正规劳动力市场是如何种族化和性别化的。 通过赋予商贩，特别是女性的声音特权，她们的日常生活塑造并影响着城市景观，这项研究将街角与相互关联的全球进程联系起来。 最后，通过将研究重点放在街头小贩及其家人的人权和经济权利上，这项研究将促进服务和影响这一群体的政策和计划的制定。 作为博士论文研究改进奖，该奖项还将为有前途的学生建立强大的独立研究生涯提供支持。