Abstract
There has been a lot of research on the relationship between regulators and street vendors, often portraying regulators as bullies of vulnerable vendors. However, there is little documentation on urban regulators and their challenges as they implement their mandates. This paper investigates the challenges and negotiating strategies of regulators of street-vended foods in Ghana and analyses the implication for their relationship with street food vendors. The paper reveals that regulators operate in a context of limited resources, leading to a general feeling of neglect. In coping, regulators adopt strategies that encourage harassment of vendors and increase tensions between vendors and regulators. Thus, this study establishes relations between the challenges and negotiating strategies of regulators and the poor relations that exist between regulators and vendors. This paper argues that motivating and addressing the needs of regulators can serve as an important basis for eliminating harassment and for improving the relationships between regulators and street vendors.
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Notes
Personal communication, director of the Environmental Health and Sanitation Unit, 5 September 2014.
An abatement notice is a notice served to vendors found to be guilty of a particular offence. This notice requires vendors to eliminate the problem or offence usually within 24 h and to report to authorities that the problem has been abated.
Affective commitment refers to: “an affective or psychological bonding that binds an individual to his or her organization” which is characterized by: “identification with the organization’s goals and values, congruence between organizational and individual goals, and internalization of organizational values and mission” (Chalofsky and Krishna 2009: 198).
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This research received funding from the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA), through the Ghana Street Foods Project in Kumasi.
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Forkuor, J.B., Samuelsen, H., Yeboah, E.H. et al. The Regulation of Street Foods: Experiences of Front-Line Regulators in Ghana. Urban Forum 28, 251–269 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-017-9309-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12132-017-9309-0