Facing across social exclusion. Street vendors’ discursive strategies of resistance in Barcelona

Abstract

In recent years we have witnessed the rise of street vending as an urban practice and public debate in Barcelona, and its media coverage in terms of social conflict, generating legal changes that intensify social control over non-regularized groups, especially the street vendors. In 2015, the “Sindicato Popular de Vendedores Ambulantes” (Popular Union of Street Vendors) was created as a platform to legitimize the activity and defend their rights. This article considers that the construction of the street vendors’ phenomenon emerges within the framework of an urban intergroup conflict, and with a strong xeno-racist component. Here we analyze some statements and manifestos of the Union, and various indirect testimonies from the perspectives of Critical Discourse Analysis and Discursive Psychology. Several discursive strategies of resistance which re-signify the figure of the street vendor and construct a new collective identity, that articulates their political and social struggle are found.