ABSTRACT
Street hawking has been a feature of life in Hong Kong for many years. Unlike licensed fixed-pitch hawkers whose locations are determined by bureaucratic processes of random allocation by ballots, unlicensed hawkers have to secure their locations on their own. Although all unlicensed hawkers have equal access to the use of any particular location within a hawking area, there is a tendency among hawkers to keep the same locations. This spatial monopoly is especially strong at the core of a hawking area which consists of locations with great economic attraction (Smart 1989: 65). Therefore, unlicensed hawkers may face the problem of securing their ‘places’ from other competitors. The hawkers who do not possess the necessary social resources to gain access to favourable locations may rely on local triads to protect their hawking places.
