Exchanges in public space: A network approach to street food vendors

The economy of street food vendors provides not only affordable food for the urban poor people, but also generates opportunities of self-employment. However, success of these tiny units is dependent on various networks that create this economy. Therefore, economic outcomes from these entrepreneurial activities could be embedded with the social relations through networks. Through an ethnographic fieldwork of nine months of multiphased study among the food vendors in the UdupiManipal urban continuum of the state of Karnataka, we explore this issue to identify the key nodes that create street food economy and their policy implications.