Overview

Neoliberalism and Labor Displacement in Panama: Contested Public Space and the Disenfranchisement of Street Vendors examines the simultaneous increase of informal sector employment and decreasing access to space for people making a living in the Panamanian informal economy, particularly street vendors who illustrate the face of informality in countries of the Global South such as Panama. Through the lived experiences and voices of street traders surveyed over twelve years of field research, this book portrays the long-lasting saga and resistance actions of informalized vendors dislocated from their traditional selling points in Panama City’s downtown. María Luisa Amado argues that neoliberal policies, including privatization, labor deregulation, and market-led urban renewal, inflict a double squeeze on working-class Panamanians by reducing opportunities for stable formal sector employment and restricting access to commercially thriving but increasingly gentrified areas of Panama City, historically used for street vending. This book also sheds light on the commoditization and contested nature of public space, discursively contended by competing views of its functions and who has the right to it.

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9781666918946

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A thoughtful and compelling insight into the lives of Panamanian street traders who face multiple layers of socio-spatial exclusion. --Verónica Crossa Niell, El Colegio de México In this remarkable study, María Luisa Amado relies on twelve years of intensive fieldwork among street vendors in Panama City, Panama. With keen insight and a sure hand, she brings us into their lives, their woes, and their small triumphs at the core of the informal Panamanian economy. Like her earlier book on Mexican immigrants in the Atlanta labor market, this book offers rich descriptive interview materials interpreted through a solid theoretical framework. It documents, at the ground level, protracted struggles over urban space in an era of neoliberal economic reform, gentrification, and expanding tourism. But this is not a book about Panama alone; its themes and analyses are applicable globally, to every urban locale where the informal economy sustains a sizable portion of the population. --John Boli, professor emeritus, Emory University A thoughtful and compelling insight into the lives of Panamanian street traders who face multiple layers of socio-spatial exclusion. In this remarkable study, María Luisa Amado relies on twelve years of intensive fieldwork among street vendors in Panama City, Panama. With keen insight and a sure hand, she brings us into their lives, their woes, and their small triumphs at the core of the informal Panamanian economy. Like her earlier book on Mexican immigrants in the Atlanta labor market, this book offers rich descriptive interview materials interpreted through a solid theoretical framework. It documents, at the ground level, protracted struggles over urban space in an era of neoliberal economic reform, gentrification, and expanding tourism. But this is not a book about Panama alone; its themes and analyses are applicable globally, to every urban locale where the informal economy sustains a sizable portion of the population.

A thoughtful and compelling insight into the lives of Panamanian street traders who face multiple layers of socio-spatial exclusion. --Verónica Crossa Niell, El Colegio de México In this remarkable study, María Luisa Amado relies on twelve years of intensive fieldwork among street vendors in Panama City, Panama. With keen insight and a sure hand, she brings us into their lives, their woes, and their small triumphs at the core of the informal Panamanian economy. Like her earlier book on Mexican immigrants in the Atlanta labor market, this book offers rich descriptive interview materials interpreted through a solid theoretical framework. It documents, at the ground level, protracted struggles over urban space in an era of neoliberal economic reform, gentrification, and expanding tourism. But this is not a book about Panama alone; its themes and analyses are applicable globally, to every urban locale where the informal economy sustains a sizable portion of the population. --John Boli, professor emeritus, Emory University

Author Information

Mar�a Luisa Amado is Lincoln Financial Professor of sociology and anthropology at Guilford College.

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