A Study of the concept of 'contested space' in the context of street vending in Sri Lanka : a case study

Abstract

The research discussed the concept of contested space in the context of street vending in urban areas of Sri Lanka. Urban public space is contested by different local actors. The street vender is one of the local actors that contested over the urban public space. Street vending is contested activity because of they use certain urban public space for their business purpose. The contestation arises due to different meanings and perceptions have been given for urban public space by different actors. The contestation arises between the professional in planning authority’s one side and street venders and other local actors in other side. The professionals in planning agencies are responsible for designing and defining of urban public space. The professional place making practice is basically depending on the concepts and theories of urban planning. There is critic that these concepts and theories were produced base on western countries by the western universities. There is an opinion that applying of this knowledge in different socio, economic, cultural and political environment made contested space within urban area. The literature revealed that professionals are more responsible for creating conceive space. In contrast to conceive space the local peoples creating every day space within urban space. To understand the contested terrain and ongoing confrontation between planning agencies and local legitimate actors the research will analysis the different perceptions of professionals in Kurunegala Municipal Council and Urban Development Authority, street venders and pedestrians. And also it will analysis the ways of contest over the conceive space by street venders. It is clear that there is big gap in knowledge between local actors and professionals. So there should be need radical participatory method in planning process to harvest local knowledge and wisdom to minimize contested nature of the urban area.