Negotiating Informality: A Theoretical Framework for Street Trading in the Urban Land scape of Major Nigerian and selected African Cities

This paper develops a theoretical framework for understanding how street trading is negotiated within the urban landscapes of major Nigerian cities and selected African cities. It argues that street trading should not be read solely as an economic aberration or as a planning problem to be eradicated; rather, it is a situated practice that reconfigures space, produces forms of urban livelihood, and is continuously re made through everyday negotiations among traders, citizens, state actors, and market intermediaries. Drawing on contemporary literatures on urban informality, street trade, and governance, the paper synthesizes theoretical strands political economy of space, everyday urbanism, negotiation and bargaining theories, and resilience scholarship to propose a multidimensional analytical model for research and planning practice. Key implications for policy and planning are outlined, emphasizing negotiated regularization, spatial design interventions, and participatory governance that respect livelihoods while addressing public-order and environmental concerns. Core claims are grounded in recent empirical and conceptual work on African street trade.