Illicit mint and unregulated vendors: constructing illegality in French public spaces

Abstract

Focusing on street-side vending of fresh mint and herbs in the French city of Montpellier this paper considers the difference between illegal and informal vending, and the regulatory mechanisms deployed by municipal and police actors in the push to eradicate illegality. Drawing on municipal archives from the late 1990s, and interviews and city documents from the 2000s, I examine the relationship between regularized market stall holders and those selling goods outside assigned vending spaces with a particular interest in how these two groups interact, and the instances in which police and market officials are called. Through a rapidly escalating campaign to fight illegality, green fresh mint is coded as an illicit product and the individuals who sell it are targeted as dangerous criminal elements.