Violence, Displacement, Poverty and Expectations in Street Vendors Located in Public Spaces of Florencia-Caquetá Colombia

Abstract

Street vendors are often people who live between precariousness, daily survival, and disastrous working conditions. Likewise, they tend to be people with low levels of education, poverty, and undignified living conditions. This research focused on investigating the socioeconomic conditions of street vendors located in public spaces of Florencia-Caquetá-Colombia, understanding life factors that have determined insertion of the population in this activity, as well as their perceptions of possible relocation or formalization proposals from local authorities. Florencia and Caquetá are territories where internal armed conflict has played a major role. To respond to this objective, 190 surveys and 39 interviews were carried out. It was evidenced that most of the street vendors surveyed are migrants displaced by violence, that has plagued the country for the last 70 years, which makes this study groundbreaking, since few investigations have addressed the armed conflict - street vendor – poverty - formalization expectations relationship. Elements presented should be taken into account for the development of public policies, since the reality of each territory is different, and in this case, characteristics of street vendors in Florencia and their interest in formalization must be taken into account.

Keywords: Street Vending, Poverty, Violence, Public Space, Armed Conflict.