This article presents narratives of merchants and participant observation in street markets made between 2004 and 2008. His central argument is that the work of merchants is fundamentally sustained in their ability to establish social ties and to promote sociability. The reflections that these workers draw about their work indicate the knowledges and practices that they systematize in this trajectory: ways to serve customers, knowledge about food, its origins, circulation and distribution, the networks of suppliers that they lay down, etc. The emphasis placed on social ties with their customers, suppliers and colleagues reveals that this metier is configured from a shared experience in everyday practices of the market.
city; forms of sociability; street market; work