In this article I focus on production and struggles around the illegality of street vendors and informal garbage collectors. Addressing activities from illegalism and the relation to social inequality allow us to understand the ways in which legitimate subjects are constructed in public space. This position allows thinking legality or illegality as a processes instead of something given and showing the existing power struggles around activities. It also allows understanding the network of social relationships that cannot be understood as static legal or illegal forms. Attending to dynamics and actions, and the way in which they are presented and justified, gives us clues of the way in which certain activities and certain social groups fight for the use of public space and for accessing social reproduction in a broad sense: as worthy and legitimate ways of make a living.
Key-words:
Buenos Aires; Garbage collectors; Ambulant vending; Illegalisms; Urban struggles; Public space