Hustle in the Sidewalk: Triangular Contestations Between Hawkers, Walkers, and Coppers in the Kathmandu Valley.

This article examines the complex dynamics of street vending in Kathmandu Valley, focusing on the vendors’ livelihood strategies, interactions with pedestrians, and resistance to city police enforcement. Street vending, primarily undertaken by marginalized rural migrants and lower-class populations, provides critical economic opportunities but is often criminalized and viewed as a nuisance by middle-class urbanites and authorities aiming for city “aestheticization” and modernization. Vendors employ diverse, often covert tactics—such as shifting locations and schedules, using social networks, and informal communication—to evade police raids and navigate contested urban spaces, while also facing health risks from severe air pollution and poor sanitation. The study highlights the tension between informal economic survival and urban governance, revealing street vending as both a site of exclusion and everyday resistance within Kathmandu’s evolving socio-spatial landscape.