Abstract

Public markets in Mexico and Latin America are important spaces of commercialization and social revitalization that contain a representative set of regional environment (Licona 2014, 142). One intrinsic attribute of public markets is the informal vibe in which they are immersed. Informality has been studied using cases of application such as informal employment (Moser 1978; Crossa 2016) and squatting (Roy 2005, 2009; McFarlane 2012). However, despite being a very relevant epicenter for social dynamics, public markets have not been studied under the light of formality and informality in coexistence. This research asks why do stakeholders in this public markets use both formal and informal practices in their market-related activities. To answer this question three major axes will be explained on which this imbrication happens: Pragmatism- where agents use informality or formality depending on which one provide the greatest benefits or the lowest cost (Loayza 2008, 50), government action or inaction- where informality appears in legal loopholes in ambiguous regulation (Navarrete 2016, 287) or in the poorly enforcement of regulations (Banks et al. 2019, 11), and social networks and culture- Mexican civil society historically has low confidence in institutional agents that enforce and establish the law (Mitofsky 2020). Mainly because of the high number of cases of impunity and corruption (Tronco 2012, 230), promoting in different issues the general acceptance of Non-compliance with the regulation.