The aim of this article is to describe how street commerce that has come to be seen as a "problem" in two major Brazilian cities: Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. The text concentrates on two periods - 1980 to 1990 and 2000 to 2010 - during which governmental intervention in street commerce radically changed, examining the flux of people and merchandise and the forms of this intervention.
illegalism; street selling; government; entrepreneurship; militarization; securitization