- Accommodating the Street Hawkers into Modern Urban Management in Kuala Lumpur    76 kb by    Hassan, Norhaslina | nhaslina@um.edu.my    Short Outline The purpose of this paper is to examine the roles and contribution of hawking activities as well as to highlight issues and challenges of street hawkers management and control towards its sustainable development in Kuala Lummpur Abstract It is encouraging to note that in recent years major cities in Southeast Asia have become more conscious of the presence of the informal sector which has become part of the underlying image of most Asian cities. The sheer size of the sector alone showed how important it is to the countries involved in this region with respect to issues such as unemployment and urban poverty. While the theory based on survival strategy remains to be widely prevalent in explaining the development of the sector, recent studies have started to associate the growing presence of the sector with the logic of productive decentralization (Portes, Castells and Benton, 1989). At present in Malaysia, hawking constitutes the bulk of informal sector activities in major urban areas. Hawkers are seen as effective and efficient agents in the distribution of goods and services through their linkage with the formal sector. They help to keep the cost of living in the city low by providing food and other consumer items at affordable prices and widen consumer choice. Hawking in another sense is part of the Malaysian culture to be promoted. The challenges however, remain in its management and control which involves considerations such as health, cleanliness, aesthetics and safety. This paper will trace the changing characteristics of the street hawkers in Kuala Lumpur since the 1970s. While the paper makes no unmistakable account of the roles and contributions of hawking activities to urban living there it also highlights the main issues relating to their sustainable existence. The paper will also evaluate the current strategies of managing the street hawkers in Kuala Lumpur which were mostly by relocation and upgrading exercise. Much of the paper is based on a study project that try to match the needs of three parties as it relates to the management of hawking activities: the street hawkers, the local people affected by hawking activities and the local authorities. Keywords Street Hawkers Case Study presented on the ISOCARP Congress 2003: Planning in a more globalized World   Click to open the full paper as pdf document   Click to send an email to the author(s) of this paper