ABSTRACT
Since 2008, informal flea markets have been spreading throughout poor areas of Paris. Many people, including immigrants, have resorted to selling and buying recuperated goods in order to make a living during tough economic times. As in other cities around the world (Low 2000; Bromley 2000; Cross 1998), the police have been cracking down on street peddlers, although with mixed results. Such repression, at the behest of inhabitants and local elected officials concerned with security and cleanliness, often puts police officers at odds with the informal order of the street, causing vendors, clients, and passers-by to react to arrests and brutality. Policing thus becomes the catalyzing agent for the formation of publics mobilized for a cause.
