Street commerce and disputes over public space in downtown Lima (Peru): Temporary spaces, negotiation and daily life

This paper aims to analyze how the daily practices of regulation of street commerce not only operate under criteria of discretion, but also configure temporary spaces of commerce. Based on an analysis of observation, interviews and urban records, the case of the main metropolitan commercial centrality in Lima (Peru) is examined. We propose to make visible the temporary and mobile nature of street commerce, describing micro-negotiation practices, where the State –through its officials– acts daily in the production of space. The article dialogues with the contributions of contemporary research on mobility and informality and establishes a contribution to the understanding of the dynamics of street trade.