Invisible Work and Informal Links Between an Ordinary Countryside and the Working-Class Urban Districts
This paper draws the portrait of informal corn cob street vending in Greater Paris, showing that part of this activity contributes to the silent relocation of the urban food system in the working-class neighborhoods of the metropolis. By approaching it through the lens of workers’ narratives and not only through the geography of the food, it was possible to show the driving force of daily subsistence efforts in the renewal of the city from its margins. However, street vending must confront the internal contradictions of the sustainable city model: while there has never been so much discourses about reducing the ecological footprint of city food through the relocalization of supplies, the urban renewal of working-class neighborhoods reduces the possibilities for grass-roots systems that build bridges with the neighboring countryside.