Exploring gender-based spatio-temporal patterns of informal street vending:A case study in Fangshan District, Beijing, China

Many studies have shown that, due largely to family and socio-cultural influences, women prefer part-time and flexible employment, which aligns with the character of informal street vending. However, unlike many other workers, female vendors must consider the temporary use of space and co-produce an ever-changing environment that interacts with a diverse range of people with heterogeneous demands, a phenomenon that has received little research attention. Using spatial-temporal behavior mapping and on-site observations at three street spaces in Fangshan District, Beijing, China, we examined the spatio-temporal behavioral patterns of female vendors and explored gender differences in the type, mode, spatial meaning, and time of informal vending in the Chinese urban context. Our results indicate that when vending space is limited, male vendors tend to cluster; female vendors are more dispersed, and more likely to occupy spaces with unfavorable selling environments. When there are fewer vendors on the site, female vendors sell closer to the inner side of the street (i.e., less accessibility compared with male vendors). Most female vendors sell relatively lightweight and small goods with low profit margins. Male vendors tend to occupy fixed stalls and utilize heavier transport equipment, while female vendors are more likely to be flexible in location and use lightweight transport equipment. Furthermore, female vendors are more likely than male vendors to operate during weekdays and in daylight hours than on the weekends and at night. We also attempted to understand the potential reasons for gender differences in temporary space use, and informal socio-economic co-production, in urban street contexts. Our study provides further scientific basis for the promotion of more inclusive, vibrant, and healthy urban environments by considering the largely overlooked group of informal female street vendors and their temporary inhabitation and use of urban street space

Understanding a specific walkable space via the phenomenon of Chinese street vending:An actor-network theory analysis

In contemporary Chinese cities, the pervasive phenomenon of street vending often emerges in a predictable space where numerous people frequently walk or stay. Using actor-network theory as a conceptual tool, this study initially elaborates a set of physical and social processes of configuration regarding Chinese street vending in walkable spaces. The network analysis involves heterogeneous actors and multiple associations regarding two groups of people, livelihoods and demands, mobile amenities, dietary habits, urban micro-economy, and collective participation. The results illustrate additional knowledge to why walkability, and how a specific walkable space is configured in the Chinese context. Keywords: Street vendors; Walkable spaces; Actor-network theory; Specificity. eISSN 2398-4295 © 2018. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21834/ajbes.v3i13.15

How Does Street Vending Contribute to Walkability? A report on a study in Yuncheng, China

In contemporary Chinese cities, street vendors often emerge in a predictable space where numerous people frequently walk or stay. In this sense, the ubiquitous phenomenon of street vending closely relates to the walkability of urban space in the Chinese context. The use of Actor-Network Theory (ANT) analyses a series of immaterial and material actors, which intertwine as a heterogeneous network within complex associations. Based on our previous reviews, this study is the first exploration to implicate the heterogeneous network of street vending as a possible approach to understanding walkable spaces.© 2016. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia.Keywords: Street Vendors, Actor-Network Theory, Walkable Space

Traces Under the Surface

‘Traces Under the Surface’ is a research-led exhibition commissioned for the opening of the Red-River Culture Art Museum in Beijing, China. The exhibition investigated the transformation of everyday urban space during the Covid lockdown in Chinese cities. It explored how urban visual media can serve as an alternative observation tool for critically understanding the living experience during the pandemic via the lens of students in Beijing. Through a site-specific curation, the exhibition included a group of installations and a film produced in 2022. The co-curators are currently working on a publication with the Beijing Institute of Technology Press. The exhibition and the film examine the idea of a 'virtual field-trip' to map out a psychogeographic guide of Beijing during the pandemic lockdown. It foregrounds personal stories, as well as their social, spatial, and psychological connections with other people, objects, and spaces in the city. It resonates with the philosopher Judith Butler's writings on pandemic, to highlight how the pandemic illuminated the everyday object as a 'social form' that bears invisible traces. The exhibition aims to register and document the 'unnoticed' stories of grassroots who traverse, resist and negotiate with the authoritative restrictions - stories that would be struggling to find a place in official records but demonstrating an important layer of urban life in the city

Randomly Projected Convex Clustering Model: Motivation, Realization, and Cluster Recovery Guarantees

In this paper, we propose a randomly projected convex clustering model for clustering a collection of $n$ high dimensional data points in $\mathbb{R}^d$ with $K$ hidden clusters. Compared to the convex clustering model for clustering original data with dimension $d$, we prove that, under some mild conditions, the perfect recovery of the cluster membership assignments of the convex clustering model, if exists, can be preserved by the randomly projected convex clustering model with embedding dimension $m = O(\epsilon^{-2}\log(n))$, where $0 < \epsilon < 1$ is some given parameter. We further prove that the embedding dimension can be improved to be $O(\epsilon^{-2}\log(K))$, which is independent of the number of data points. Extensive numerical experiment results will be presented in this paper to demonstrate the robustness and superior performance of the randomly projected convex clustering model. The numerical results presented in this paper also demonstrate that the randomly projected convex clustering model can outperform the randomly projected K-means model in practice

Study on Optimal Middle Temperature of Cascade-condenser in CO2/NH3 Cascade Refrigeration Systems with Two Temperature Ranges

This paper analyzes a CO2/NH3 cascade refrigeration system of two temperature range applied in the cold storage. A mathematical model is presented to determine the optimal middle temperatures of the cascade-condenser for obtaining the maximum coefficient of performance (COP) under different operation conditions. Three main parameters including the evaporation temperature in the cold storage, the evaporation temperature in the refrigerated storage and the condensation temperature in the high temperature stage are used to study the optimal middle temperature of CO2 in the cascade-condenser. The results show that the optimal middle temperature increases with the increment of three main parameters. Moreover, under specific conditions, the optimal temperature is equal to the evaporation temperature of refrigerated storage. The results shown in this paper is helpful to the control strategy of CO2/NH3 cascade refrigeration systems for two temperature ranges

Exploring dynamic street vendors and pedestrians through the lens of static spatial configuration in Yuncheng, China

Extensive studies have demonstrated the relationship between static street networks and dynamic pedestrian movement. Street vendors temporarily appear in a vibrant space, closely engaging with numerous pedestrians. Is street vending distribution related to street network configuration? And if so, in what ways? This study investigates the heterogeneous relationships between pedestrians, vendors and the urban and suburban places they inhabit in Yuncheng by contrasting two different types of pedestrian-driven maps. The vending distribution map was identified via semi-structured interviews with urban managers (n = 11) in 2017. The spatial network configuration was examined through space syntax segment angular analysis, containing Integration, Choice and Combined Centrality properties at macro-, meso- and micro-scales. By overlapping the distribution map to the syntactic maps in the Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) platform, our results show that street vending distribution is most related to the Choice property at the meso-scale. Using semi-structured interviews (n = 53) and observations at two specific sites, we further found relationships tend to be opposed in urban and suburban areas. The study provides an alternative approach to integrating quantitative and qualitative data, expanding the theoretical and empirical understanding of spatial configuration and urban street activities related to walking and vending. This understanding has the potential to contribute to the design of more liveable street spaces