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Purpose: Doing qualitative research with vulnerable urban populations such as street traders present significant methodological challenges, which many researchers may not be prepared to handle. This paper aims to provide a reflective account of the authors' fieldwork experiences while conducting a study with street traders in Harare, Zimbabwe. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws data from a qualitative case study conducted with street traders in Harare's Central Business District (CBD). In this study, mixed qualitative methods were used including focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews and photovoice. Findings: The study's findings suggest that researching street traders is a complex process that requires flexibility, adaptability and creativity of researchers across the following aspects: gaining access in unfamiliar research contexts, building rapport and trust with participants, managing ethical dilemmas and addressing power imbalances between researchers and participants. Originality/value: While there is a growing body of empirical research on street trading in the global south, there are limited studies that discusses the practical fieldwork experiences associated with conducting primary research with such vulnerable and dynamic urban populations. The authors highlight strategies and practical steps that can be taken to address these challenges. This paper emphasizes the need for flexibility and adaptability in researching street traders, as it is akin to exploring uncharted territories where conventional methodological templates may not be effective.

Regional collaboration has been suggested as a more effective way to promote economic development than competitive approaches. In Ontario, despite attempts by the provincial government to encourage regional collaboration, research finds that municipalities are still engaging in inter-territorial competition. In this article, we conducted interviews with thirty-seven practitioners to determine if economic development practices in Ontario have shifted towards more collaborative approaches during the COVID-19 pandemic. The article finds that regional collaboration, as an economic development practice, has intensified in the province during the recent pandemic. Practitioners noted three reasons for engaging in regional collaboration: pool resources, reduce duplication, and complete regionally task-oriented goals. Sommaire On a laisse entendre que la collaboration regionale est un moyen plus efficace de promouvoir le developpement economique que les approches concurrentielles. En Ontario, malgre les tentatives du gouvernement provincial d'encourager la collaboration regionale, des etudes demontrent que les municipalites se livrent toujours a une concurrence interterritoriale. Dans cet article, nous avons mene des entrevues avec trente-sept praticiens afin de determiner si les pratiques de developpement economique en Ontario ont glisse vers des approches plus collaboratives pendant la pandemie de COVID-19. En tant que pratique de developpement economique, nous constatons que la collaboration regionale s'est intensifiee dans cette province au cours de la recente pandemie. Les praticiens ont releve trois raisons pour s'engager dans une collaboration regionale : la mise en commun des ressources, la diminution du double emploi et l'atteinte des objectifs regionaux axes sur des taches precises., INTRODUCTION The Ontario provincial government has attempted to foster regional collaboration between municipalities over the past several decades. However, despite local practitioners' acknowledgement of the benefits of collaborative approaches to [...]

Street trading is a highly gendered form of economic activity practiced by the urban poor in most global south cities. Drawing from focus group discussions and in-depth interviews, this paper examines the everyday struggles facing female street traders with children as they negotiate access to contested urban spaces to make a living in Harare's Central Business District (CBD). The paper argues that public spaces in Harare's CBD act as both 'livelihood spaces' and places of intense vulnerability for women who have caregiving roles. Female street traders struggle to balance between selling their goods as well as watching for municipal surveillance. These challenges are dire for women with children. The women often engage in precarious strategies to evade municipal enforcement including using their children as 'shields' for protection from a highly repressive state machinery that is less sympathetic to the plight of the urban poor. Despite facing these constraints, women enact creative practices to lay claims to urban space. This paper contributes to the ongoing scholarly debates on gender and the informal economy in global south cities. We suggest that urban planning initiatives should be attentive to gendered experiences and needs to create more inclusive and equitable urban environments, where female street traders can engage in their livelihoods without facing harassment or violence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines the role of support networks in the integration process of Ghanaian immigrants to Canada. Although social support networks have been widely argued to shape the immigrants' pre- and postmigration experience, their presence and roles are neither self-evident nor constant. Common conceptualizations of social support exchange often perceive support as unidirectional, flowing only from network members to immigrants. This underlies a rather linear notion of support networks among immigrants. Given this, this study investigates the directionality of support regarding emotional, instrumental, and informational support and the extent to which closeness, delineated as familial (kinship), perceived (importance of relationship), temporal (frequency of interaction), and geographic (location) influence these support exchanges. The study employs a multilevel multinomial analysis of 172 egocentric networks in Toronto, Canada, using a social network analysis approach. Results show that geographic closeness was consistently less important than kinship, temporal, and perceived closeness in both emotional, instrumental, and informational support—regardless of directionality. This broadly support the assertions about "death of distance" and that spatiality might no longer be a key influencer within the social support networks of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This study examines the most significant development risk women at risk of being left behind in the SDGs implementation experience. It uses the photovoice method and the social amplification of risk framework (SARF) to highlight development risks in participants' everyday lives that increase their likelihood of being left behind. The findings demonstrate that while the challenges faced by at-risk individuals can be complex, frameworks such as the SARF can assist in understanding the underlying socio-cultural processes that intensify the effects of risks faced by those vulnerable to being left behind. The priorities identified by participants suggest that aside from targeting the needs of the farthest behind, initiatives prioritised in SDGs localisation should also harness the linkages between the SDGs to optimise the limited time and resources available for SDG implementation. The findings are relevant to identifying strategies to operationalise the 'leave no one behind' (LNOB) commitment effectively and efficiently in developing contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the early 2000s, plant closures have been a significant concern in Ontario, Canada. Scholars and policymakers alike aim to investigate the causes of plant closures and determine how to mitigate their impacts. Despite the large body of literature on plant closures, local economic development practitioners' perspectives and experiences have been neglected. To fill this gap, this paper interviewed twenty-two practitioners from various cities in Ontario to understand how practitioners perceive and respond to plant closures. The findings provide a comprehensive overview of the various dynamics of plant closures. Also, based on the findings, seven policy recommendations are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cities are increasingly outsourcing economic development policy advisory and development to private consultants. To explore the role and influence of consultants, this study undertook a systematic examination of the economic development policy documents of 41 cities in the Province of Ontario, Canada. The findings of this study indicate that a small handful of consultants are key actors in economic development policy advisory in Ontario. The policy documents authored by consultants tend to be similar in style, scope, and language; and from a policy perspective, there is convergence of policy as cities are recommended the same economic development strategies. De plus en plus, les villes sous-traitent la consultation en matiere de politique du developpement economique a des consultants prives. Cette etude a precede a un examen systematique des documents portant sur les politiques du developpement economique de 41 villes dans la province canadienne de l'Ontario, afin d'etudier le role et l'influence des consultants. Nos resultats montrent que seule une petite poignee de consultants jouent un role cle dans l'avis en matiere de politique du developpement economique en Ontario. Les documents de politique rediges par les consultants offrent de grandes similitudes pour ce qui est du style, de l'ampleur et du langage. En outre, d'un point de vue strategique, il y a convergence de politiques, etant donne que les recommandations faites aux villes ont les memes strategies de developpement economique., Introduction In an era of global economic instability, it is not at all surprising that economic development has become an important item on the political agendas of all levels of [...]