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Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana

There is a need to review and recast how space is being planned and how regulations are responding to the realities of the informal economy. Street trading provides a critical platform to explore the dynamics and complexity of planning and management of informal activities in public spaces. This res...

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Main Author: Lethugile, Goabamang
Other Authors: Skinner, Caroline
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: Department of Environmental and Geographical Science 2020
Subjects:
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access_status_str Open Access
author Lethugile, Goabamang
author2 Skinner, Caroline
author_browse Lethugile, Goabamang
Skinner, Caroline
author_facet Skinner, Caroline
Lethugile, Goabamang
author_sort Lethugile, Goabamang
collection Thesis
description There is a need to review and recast how space is being planned and how regulations are responding to the realities of the informal economy. Street trading provides a critical platform to explore the dynamics and complexity of planning and management of informal activities in public spaces. This research explored how city governance shapes the practices of informal street trading in Gaborone, Botswana. It investigated how street traders navigate their daily trading and their spatial practices and strategies. Insights were gleaned through in-depth interviews with street traders in three different sites in Gaboroneand key informant interviews with politicians and government officials–both senior and lower level staff. Combining the government officials'and traders' perspectives has allowed for the exploration of the disjuncture betweenthe two. The interview findings indicated that the state continues to govern but with inappropriate tools, and traders continue to trade but in sub-optimum ways. The Gaborone Council has made some headway in accepting street traders but still provides little or no infrastructure. It is argued that traders themselves constitute public space, so their voices, practices, strategies and resilience need to be understood. The dissertation concludes by making recommendations that could improve conditions for all parties.
format Thesis
id oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32338
institution University of Cape Town (South Africa)
language eng
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:32:37.404Z
license_str Not specified — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
publishDate 2020
publishDateRange 2020
publishDateSort 2020
publisher Department of Environmental and Geographical Science
publisherStr Department of Environmental and Geographical Science
record_format dspace
source_str UCTD — University of Cape Town Open Access Repository
spelling oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/32338 Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana Lethugile, Goabamang Skinner, Caroline Southern Urbanism, Urban Studies There is a need to review and recast how space is being planned and how regulations are responding to the realities of the informal economy. Street trading provides a critical platform to explore the dynamics and complexity of planning and management of informal activities in public spaces. This research explored how city governance shapes the practices of informal street trading in Gaborone, Botswana. It investigated how street traders navigate their daily trading and their spatial practices and strategies. Insights were gleaned through in-depth interviews with street traders in three different sites in Gaboroneand key informant interviews with politicians and government officials–both senior and lower level staff. Combining the government officials'and traders' perspectives has allowed for the exploration of the disjuncture betweenthe two. The interview findings indicated that the state continues to govern but with inappropriate tools, and traders continue to trade but in sub-optimum ways. The Gaborone Council has made some headway in accepting street traders but still provides little or no infrastructure. It is argued that traders themselves constitute public space, so their voices, practices, strategies and resilience need to be understood. The dissertation concludes by making recommendations that could improve conditions for all parties. 2020-10-29T09:15:46Z 2020-10-29T09:15:46Z 2020 2020-10-29T08:47:30Z Master Thesis Masters MPhil http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32338 eng application/pdf Department of Environmental and Geographical Science Faculty of Science
spellingShingle Southern Urbanism, Urban Studies
Lethugile, Goabamang
Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
thesis_degree_str Master's
title Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
title_full Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
title_fullStr Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
title_full_unstemmed Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
title_short Encountering city governance: an analysis of street trading in Gaborone, Botswana
title_sort encountering city governance an analysis of street trading in gaborone botswana
topic Southern Urbanism, Urban Studies
url http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32338
work_keys_str_mv AT lethugilegoabamang encounteringcitygovernanceananalysisofstreettradingingaboronebotswana