Definition: The power relationship between the encroachers and the authorities
For many of these disenfranchised, the streets are the main, perhaps the only, place where they can perform their daily functions – to assemble, make friends, earn a living, spend their leisure time and express discontent.
Streets are also the public places where the state has the most evident presence, which is expressed in police patrol, traffic regulations and spatial divisions – in short, public ordering.
Two key factors render the streets an arena of politics.
First is the use of public space as a ==site of contestation== between the actors and the authorities.
The second element shaping street politics is the ==operation of a passive network== among the people who use and operate in the public space – an instantaneous communication among atomised individuals which is established by a tacit recognition of their common identity, and which is mediated through space.