Deficits in Formal Legal Regime and Informal Responses to Governance of Urban Food Supply An Investigation into the Informal Floating Food Supply System in Metropolitan Dhaka

Abstract

Theoretically, it has been argued that institutions are critical to the
effective management of cities and the delivery of efficient urban services and
infrastructure. However, unlike many other constraints underlying institutional and
governance issues stand out majority of the metropolitan governance problem raises
from existing institutional paradoxes or absence of thorough formal regime. Several
consequences of institutional paradoxes from vivid sectors such as transport,
residential, drainage have been discussed however, urban food supply and
distribution system is most often neglected. Hence, considering the Informal Floating
Food Supply System (IFFSS) as case study this paper explores how deficits in formal
legal regime has legitimatised the IFFSS and enforced it to operate through informal
ways. The IFFSS, or selling fresh vegetables in local neighbourhood is an old
tradition that is still visible in Dhaka’s modern image. However, indiscriminate
urbanization has not only lead Dhaka towards jeopardy, but also has left IFFSS’s
cultural endurance as an ambiguous concept. Arguing IFFSS as a nuisance, it calls
for rigid state action and forced to manoeuvre through delicate local governance
regimes, also known as informal rules. Therefore, this study discloses how in the
absence of direct formal rules and regulations the IFFSS is designated as unlawful
and illegal part of retail trade and it is subject to contestation since existing
government institutions have failed to provide any rules, laws and regulations that
can directly guide and administer the IFFSS.