Governing urban informality: re-working spaces and subjects in Kampala, Uganda

This article addresses evolving ways of governing urban informality that increasingly draw upon the management of space. Drawing inspiration from governmentality studies, the article examines contemporary governmental strategies of spatial enclosure and expulsion deployed upon street vendors in Kamp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:International development planning review 2019, Vol.41 (1), p.63-84
Main Authors: Lindell, Ilda, Ampaire, Christine, Byerley, Andrew
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Ambition
Analysis
city markets
Economic aspects
Enclosures
evictions
Expulsion
Governance
Governmentality
Informal economy
Management
Metropolitan areas
Metropolitan government
Participation
Peddlers
Political aspects
Politics
Power
Public spaces
Resistance
Social aspects
Spatial analysis
spatial rationalities
State power
street vending
Transformation
Urban areas
urban informality
Urban planning
urban politics
Vendors
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Summary:This article addresses evolving ways of governing urban informality that increasingly draw upon the management of space. Drawing inspiration from governmentality studies, the article examines contemporary governmental strategies of spatial enclosure and expulsion deployed upon street vendors in Kampala, in the context of an ambitious urban transformation agenda and a recentralisation of political authority. The article uncovers the complex configuration of actors involved in the realisation and contestation of such spatial strategies, the messy political interactions and the multiple lines of tension they generate, thus questioning simplistic conceptual oppositions and coherent categories. The contradictory agency of the vendors comes to light, encompassing both resistance and active participation in their own enclosure. The state, far from operating as a cohesive repressive force, emerges as deeply divided around the fate of street vendors, suggesting that ways of governing informality play a central role in struggles for power among state actors. The article also explores the outcomes of dominant spatial strategies of governance in Kampala, both in terms of the effects on the targeted population and of the limits of these strategies for the intended transformation of the city.
ISSN:1474-6743
1478-3401
1478-3401
DOI:10.3828/idpr.2019.4