Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo > Notices

CSEAS seminar series - Clayton

Published: 7 May 2008

Topic: Reconfiguring Urban Livelihoods: Women and Street Vending in the Northern Philippines
Presenter: Lynne Milgram, Professor, Ontario College of Art and Design
Date: Thursday, 8 May 2008
Venue: SG02, Ground Floor, Menzies Building, Clayton campus

In the Philippines, since the 1980s the liberalisation of the country’s economy has meant increasing rural to urban migration and dramatic growth informal sector trade. Women, in particular, building on their historical roles as regional traders, have made Philippine city streets their new business venues for itinerant, but viable work selling different goods. Despite municipal officials efforts to sharply curtail this growing street trade, women have organised themselves into vendor associations to lobby local governments for change.

This paper argues that female street vendors, both new migrants and longer-term traders, sustain their livelihoods by engaging in forms of activism that unsettles essentialist categories of work, class and space.

For further information contact Jemma.Purdey@adm.monash.edu.au.