Informal Markets, Livelihood and Politics

Debdulal Saha is Assistant Professor and Programme Coordinator of Labour Studies at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Guwahati campus, Assam, India. Prior to joining TISS, he was post-doctoral fellow at the International Center for Development and Decent Work (ICDD), University of Kassel, Germany. His research interests are development economics, labour studies, informal economy and livelihoods. He is co-author of Financial Inclusion of the Marginalised: Street Vendors in the Urban Economy (2013) and co-editor of The Food Crisis: Implications for Labor (2013).

• Boxes. Tables. Foreword Sharit Bhowmik. Preface. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations. Introduction: Street Vending in Informal Economy 1. Street Vendors in Urban India: An Overview 2. Informal Markets: Structure, Characteristics and Sustenance 3. Public Space, Politics and Survival Strategies 4. Livelihood Insecurity, Uncertainty and Vulnerability 5. Negotiations, Organisations and Collective Bargaining 6. Legislating Street Vending: Challenges and Alternative Development Bibliography. Index

'Informal Markets, Livelihood and Politics: Street Vendors in Urban India is an important contribution to the growing field of global labour studies. It is the most comprehensive study we have of street vending. In its combination of rigorous scholarship and commitment to policies that give an institutional voice to these new “political subjects of labour”, Debdulal Saha has provided us with a template for future studies of street vending across the globe.'Edward Webster, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa