Prelims

Half Title

Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship

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Contemporary Studies in Economics and Financial Analysis

Series Editor: Simon Grima

Title Page

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL ANALYSIS VOLUME 103

Global Street Economy and Micro Entrepreneurship

Edited by

Simon Grima

University of Malta, Malta

Osman Sirkeci

Giresun University, Turkey

Kamuran ElbeyoĞlu

Toros University, Turkey

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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First edition 2020

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ISBN: 978-1-83909-503-0 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-502-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-83909-504-7 (Epub)

ISSN: 1569-3759 (Series)

Contents

List of Figures and Tables

List of Abbreviations

About the Contributors

Frank Bezzina, PhD, is the Dean of the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy at the University of Malta. He teaches in the fields of management science, decision modelling, research methodology and evidence-based management and has a keen interest on investing phenomena in the organisational sciences. In 2012, one of his articles received the Emerald Literati Network Highly Commended Paper Award for Excellence.

Semir Bolat was born in Mersin in 1959. He graduated from Karaduvar Primary School, Mersin Secondary School, Mersin Atatürk High School and the Eskişehir Academy of Economics and Administrative Sciences. He has educated in the fields of medical pharmacology, medical appliance, international marketing and commerce. During his secondary and high school term in Mersin regional theatre, he was among the team members who received an award in the ODTÜ Amateur Theatre Festival. Since 2004 apart from marketing, he has been taking part in culture, art and media activities. He received fine arts education from Beirut University in Lebanon, fine arts education from Damascus University in Syria and education on theatre in Russia. He studied private theatre and art education in Baku–Azerbaijan, Tiflis–Georgia and Moscow–Russia. He worked as a Person In-charge of World Diabetes Federation’s social committee with his international GAPDİAB project. During his leadership of the Turkey Diabetes Foundation in activities executed by SB, MEB and Universities and Turkey Diabetes Society in Eastern and South-eastern Turkey in 21 cities, he received many awards for his plays concerning the importance of culture and art to children and diabetics. As an Area Manager and an Operating Personnel, he served the series whose name is ‘Adanın Kadınları ve Adada ki Hayalet’ which consisted of 13 episodes and was prepared with Nedim Hazar Bora and his team in NTV. He executed actuator and dramaturgy. While he was taking lessons as Ferdi Merter Fosforoğlu and Kaan Erkam’s student in İstanbul Oda Theatre and Cansın Theatre, he served as an actor, a writer and the director in stage works. He lectured drama and theatre lessons in public education centre in Adana, Adana–Seyhan and İstanbul–Adalar.

Justyne Caruana, PhD, has been the Minister for Gozo since June 2017. She was first elected to Parliament in 2003 and successively in 2008, 2013 and 2017, always from her native Gozo constituency. She served as the Parliamentary Secretary for the Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing from 2014 to 2017. In Opposition, she was a Spokesperson for Youth, Culture, Sports, Family, Children and Persons with Disability. As the Head of the Maltese Parliament’s delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, she also serves on the gender equality task force and is a Rapporteur of the first committee on political affairs. She was a Regional Representative of the UK, British Isles and Mediterranean Region on the Steering Committee of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians and currently represents Malta on its Regional British Isles and Mediterranean Steering Committee. In 2016, she was nominated as Malta’s Ambassador in the Women in Parliaments Global Forum. She has travelled widely for study and parliamentary purposes and represented Malta at various ministerial meetings and other high-level international fora. She is a Member of Social Affairs Committee, a Former Member of the Public Accounts Family and standing Committee for the Family, which was set up by virtue of a motion in Parliament which Hon Caruana co-sponsored with another two members of Parliament. As a Lawyer by profession, she specialises in family law, canonical and civil litigation, and is an Examiner at the University of Malta.

Işın Çetin is an Assistant Professor of Econometrics at the University of Giresun. She has completed Doctorate Programme in the University of Uludag. She has published several studies and papers in various academic journals on the topic of applied econometrics. Her research interests are in the area of macro econometrics, spatial econometrics, financial crisis, non-linear econometric analysis, forecasting, qualitative and quantitative econometric techniques, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and European financial studies.

Kamuran Elbeyoğlu was born in 1960 in Ankara. She graduated from the Department of Philosophy and Psychology in the School of Letters at Ankara University in 1981. She completed the Master’s degree from the Department of Psychological Services in Education in Educational Faculty at Ankara University in 1985, the Master’s degree in 1990 and the PhD degree in 1994 in Philosophy. In 1986, she was awarded a doctoral scholarship from the Ministry of National Education. In 1996, she was an Assistant Professor with the Department of Philosophy in Mersin University, where she became an Associate Professor in 2007. From 2009 to 2013, she worked in Çağ University, and then she was appointed as a Professor with the Psychology Department in Toros University in July 2013. In 2003, her book on Logic of Reasoning was published. In 2010, she published the book The Philosophy of Mind for the distance education programme in the Department of Philosophy in Anadolu University and, Sören Kierkegaard, written for the Idea Architects series for Say Publishers. She is a field editor for the Urban Academy Journal. She is both the founder of Global Street Economy Platform and the Street Economy Department in Izmir Municipality in Turkey. Her research interests include the philosophy of mind, philosophy of science, women’s philosophy, existentialism and philosophical therapy. She developed an eclectic therapy concept by combining cognitive behavioural therapy, solution-oriented short psychotherapy and schema therapy with philosophical therapy.

Sibel Gelbul was born on 23 August 1972 in Mersin. She studied Banking at the Mersin High School of Business and Commerce, Economics at Anatolian University and Social Sciences and International Trade at Mersin University. She is currently doing her customs consultant internship. She is currently the partner of Lobut Fumigation and Disinfection Company. She has been a Member of Mezitli Lions Club which she has found, and a Leo Advisor. She contributed many projects as a trainer and a counsellor. She gave trainings on motivation, effective communication and sense of belonging in many organisations. She is a Member of executive committee of Çukurova Young Business Entrepreneurs Association, ADD, TEMA and Kızılay, Global Street Platform; an Organisational Coordinator of the Department of Logistic at Toros University; is the Chairperson of Mezitli City Council; and writes columns for a number of journals and local newspapers. She gave international trade courses at Armani Private Teaching Institution five years ago. She published her first book Sibel’den in 2018. She donated the income from her book to ZİÇEV. She has been a Modern Folk-Dance Coordinator for four years and organised dance shows for the benefit of ZİÇEV and LÖSEV.

Kurtuluş Yılmaz Genç is an Associate Professor of Management at the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Giresun University, Turkey. He obtained the Bachelor’s degree from Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Business Administration, Ankara University and the Master’s and PhD degrees from Black Sea Technical University, which is in Trabzon province in Turkey. He also worked as a Research Fellow for a post-doctoral study at Exeter University, UK. His research areas focus on strategic management, strategic human resource management, environmental management, organisational behaviour, and entrepreneurship. He has published many articles, conference papers, book chapters, and edited books on these topics.

Mehmet Göçer was born in Adıyaman, Turkey, in 1958. He completed his elementary and middle school education in Adıyaman. He worked as shepherd, agricultural labourer until 2012. Then he moved to Ankara and started to work as a waste picker. In 2013, he founded the Recycling Workers Association then, under the supervision of Ankara ILO, he received an invitation as the representatives of the Recycling Workers Association under the Project of Cooperatives Potential and the role of waste collectors in the recycling sector. On 20 and 21 December 2016, a meeting was held in Ankara Monek Hotel with the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of Cooperatives and Trade, Ministry of Treasury and Finance and Ministry of Interior Affairs. He is currently the Vice President of the Recycling Workers Association.

Simon Grima, Ph.D (Melit.), MSc (Lond), MSc (BCU), B.Com (Hons) (Melit.), FFA, FAIA (Acad), is the Head of the Department of Insurance, in charge of the Bachelor of Commerce in Insurance, the Bachelor of Commerce (Honours) and Master’s degrees in Insurance and Risk Management and a Senior lecturer at the University of Malta. He set up the Insurance Department in 2015 and started and coordinates the MA and MSc Insurance and Risk Management degrees. He served as the President of the Malta Association of Risk Management (MARM) between 2013 and 2015, and President of the Malta Association of Compliance Officers (MACO) between 2016 and 2018. Moreover, he is among the first Certified Risk Management Professional (FERMA), is the chairman of the Scientific Education Committee of the Public Risk Management Organization (PRIMO) and a member of the curriculum development team of Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) in 2014. His research focus and consultancy is on Governance, Regulations and Internal Controls (i.e. Risk Management, Internal Audit and Compliance) and has over 30 years of experience varied between Financial Services and with public entities in academia, Internal Controls, Investments and IT. He acts as an Independent Director for Financial Services Firms, sits on Risk, Compliance, Procurement, Investment and Audit Committees and carries out duties as a Compliance Officer, Internal Auditor and Risk Manager. He has acted as co-chair and is a member of the scientific program committee on some international conferences and is a chief editor, editor and review editor of some Journals and Book Series. He has been awarded outstanding reviewer for Journal of Financial Regulation and Compliance in the 2017 Emerald Literati Awards.

Abbas Karaağaçlı, PhD, was born in 1956 in Marend, Azerbaijan, Iran. He completed his primary, secondary and high school education in Iran. He received the Bachelor’s degree from the Faculty of Communication at Istanbul University, and the Master’s and PhD degrees in International Relations from the same university. In 2002, he worked as a Faculty Member and the Head of the Department of International Relations and Journalism at Ahmet Yesevi International Turkish Kazakh University in Turkestan, Kazakhstan. Since the beginning of 2009, he has been working as a Faculty Member with the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, Giresun University, and he also worked as the Department Head for a term. He has published many articles and books in Turkish, Kyrgyz, Persian and Kazakh. His book Middle East to Central Asia was published by Yeniyüzyıl Publications in 2013. He is the Director of Wise Men Center for Strategic Studies, the Institute of Central Asian Studies and Ahmet Yesevi Culture Association. He is also a Member of the Academic Council of the Eurasian Economic Relations Association, and the Arbitrator and an Academic Advisor of the KafKassam and Turansam Strategic Magazines. He also has been serving as the Manager of the Black Sea Strategic Research and Application Center since 5 May 2016, and as the University Rector Advisor at Giresun University since 10 August 2016, and as the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences at Giresun University since 19 December 2016. He has been attending many national and international congresses, and he has been participating in some national and local radio and television foreign policy programmes as expert and commentator especially for TRT Ankara Radio Agenda Program.

Halim Kasim was born in Delčevo, Macedonia, in 1952. He finished Izmir Çınarlı Technical High School Electronics Department and graduated from Electrical Faculty Engineering Department, Yıldız Technical University. He worked in the Municipality of Çamdibi as an Electrical Engineer. He is a Co-Founder of Kasım Leather Confection, Ren Leather Confection and Akom Machinery and Electrical Industry and Trade JSC. He is an Electrical Engineer, Occupational Health and Safety Specialist and Construction Control, Project and Application Auditor. His research interests include, among others, the conversion of energy from sunlight into electricity (solar power), heating–cooling, generating electricity from domestic and industrial wastes or generating solar power in solarfree areas, especially strengthening collective solidarity, so that the poor and deprived people gain their self-confidence and express their thoughts and wishes. He currently working as a Freelancer on projects drawing and application.

Emine Kavas was born in Germany–Reutlingen in 1975. She graduated from Aydin High School in 1992. She received the degree from the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Business Administration, Selcuk University, in 2004,the MBA degree from the School of Business MBA, Cologne University, in 2007 and the PhD degree from the School of Business Administration, Avrasya University, in 2016. She started her career as a Branch Manager with Aras Kargo. From 1999 to 2005, she was a Branch Manager and a Regional Manager with Aras Kargo in different regions of Turkey, where she was also assigned as the Aegean Region Coordinator of DHL Worldwide during the last two years and also Aras Kargo’s partnership. From 2006 to 2010, she was the Manager in a German Logistics Company and a Cleaning Company. From 2010 to 2017, she was the CEO of a textile company in Bosnia and Herzegovina which started with the establishment process of a factory in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 2014, she established her own textile production company in Istanbul and also continued her academic life as the Director of the Doctorate Program at Southern University and also as an Academician at the same time, with her business life.

Shahnaz Rafique was born on 30 January 1965 in Delhi, India. In 1972, she started studying at Carmel Convent School, Rourkela. She received Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree, Bachelor of Education in the Field of Study Education Grade in 1982. She started studying at Sambalpur University in 1983 and graduated in 1987. From 2003 to 2009, she worked at Indian National Trade Union Congress and at the Department of Juvenile Justice. In 2013, she started a new job at IndustriALL Global Union where she is a Self-worker. She is a Coordinator (Textile & RMG) of South Asia – IndustriALL Global Union South Delhi, Delhi, India. Since 2016, she has been a National Secretary of the National Platform of Labour Health and Environment, New Delhi, India, which is a labour organisation. She is a Social Entrepreneur and have been actively involved in social field since schooldays. Basically, she has been interested to work for women and children education, health welfare and sustainable development. She has been in teaching profession for the past 17 years. She resigned last year from Jusco School for her greed to enhance her skills and to focus more independently in social sector activities and societies: Ex-Board Member Juvenile Justice Board, Adult Literacy, SHG Formation, Master Trainer HIV/AIDS, Ex-Juvenile justice Board, Red Cross Society, INTUC, INMF, International Training Centre of the ILO.

Mustafa Sarı is a Deputy Director in Family Work and Social Services Directorate, a Coordinator of projects in Mersin, Turkey. He graduated from Finance Faculty, Anatolian University, in 1988. He worked as a General Secretary in Konya Selcuk University Kulu and Ermenek Vocational School. From 2004 to 2014, he worked as the Director of Child and Youth Center (ÇOGEM) for 10 years. He is currently working as ‘Child Protection Mobile Team Coordinator’ and ‘Provincial Directorate of Children’s Rights’ towards the protection of children working on the streets for 14 years. He worked as the Manager and a Coordinator in over 10 national and international projects for the children at risk at the street. He published news about children’s rights and rehabilitation of disadvantaged children. He worked as an Honorary Correspondent for many years in media organs such as TRT-İHA-AA. Finally, he took part in the founding committee of the ‘Street Economy Platform’ (GLOSEP).

Arbind Singh is an Activist and a Social Entrepreneur. He has been empowering informal workers by getting new laws, policies and programmes and by securing their access to markets, financial services and technology organising the informal workers across India and has been his forte along with building collaborations to set up new models of development of informal workers. He played a pioneer role in getting a Street Vendors Act in India which empowers millions of street vendors against eviction and harassment. He was elected as an Ashoka and Eisenhower Fellow in 2007. He was a recipient of the Social Entrepreneur Award of the Year 2008 by the Schwab Foundation at World Economic Forum, the Award at the first innovation forum set up by the Government of Bihar in 2007, the Skoll Award by the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship in 2012, and many awards at various levels. He is on board of many government and non-government committees at national and state level. He is the Head of NIDAN and is also the National Coordinator of National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) and the Secretary of StreetNet International, a Durban based Global Federation of Street Vendors. He holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Sociology from the Delhi University.

Osman Sirkeci was born on 21 January 1959 in Bulgurca, İzmir, Turkey. He finished high school in İzmir and graduated from Dokuz Eylül University in 1984. After 20 years, he completed the Master’s degree in Germany in 2005. He received the PhD degree in Finance from Dokuz Eylül University in 2011. He worked as an Accountant and the Manager in companies such as Cumaovası Chamber of Craftsmen, Izmir Chamber of Agriculture and Istanbul Airlines. He was the Head of Textilbank Germany, CB-Bank Cologne and Düisburg Branch. He served as the Vice President of the European Federation of Turkish Businessmen. He has been sharing his 40 years of experience through various educational activities with a vision and mission of being the source of motivation and guidance for young entrepreneurs as creating awareness both in Turkey and in Germany in the occupation of Financial Consulting and Enterprise Consulting. He started his academic career at Hakkari University in 2011 and continued his academic career as an Associate Dean at Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences in Eurasian University. Since 2015, he has been a Faculty Administrative Coordinator at Giresun University. He is currently working in Izmir Municipality and the founder of Street Economy Department in Izmir Municipality in Turkey. He conducts his scientific and academic projects with an innovative entrepreneur life and thought style and in accordance with this approach, he has been given conferences and trainings in different settings. Since 2013, he has been developing and spreading his new approach of Global Street Economy – Micro Enterprises and Street Entrepreneurship with national and international conferences and projects. He is the Founder and the Honorary President of the Global Street Economics Platform, which is an example of an academic and social entrepreneurship. He has been developing his trainings and conferences in ‘Society 5.0’ vision with a team of both national and international researchers, administrators, activists and workers in the field and academicians.

Huriye Toker, PhD, is an Associate Professor, a Member of Communication Faculty at Yaşar University. She earned the MA degree in 2001 from the Journalism Department at Ege University, the Master’s degree from the Media Department at Oslo University in Norway and the PhD degree from the Department of European Studies at Dokuz Eylül University in Turkey. She has been participated in various national and international projects. In 2017, she was awarded a Jean Monnet Module by her course on integration of Turkish public sphere to EU and media. Her academic interest areas are corporate social responsibility, European Union and media, gender, disability studies and disadvantaged groups, elections and politics.

Alper Yağlidere was born in İzmir in 1981. He worked in the administration department of Celal Bayar University, Anadolu University Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences Public Administration, Dokuz Eylül University, Faculty of Economic and Administrative Sciences, Department of Public Administration in the Department of Environment and Urbanization after completing his Master’s degree Adnan Menderes. He took the Formation Education at the University of Adnan Menderes. His master’s thesis (‘The Roma Category as a Social Category in the Use of Urban Spaces – The Case of Konak District Ege Mahallesi’) was published as a book. He worked as an Expert Trainer under the Ministry of National Education. He held influential positions in Romani Studies in Turkey. Since 2004, he has been active in the struggle for the rights of the Roma community both in academic and in civil society. He was a Founding Member of the Roma Culture Anatolia. He founded the first Roma Associations Federation of Social Assistance and Solidarity Association in Izmir, Turkey, in 2005. He has been the coordinator of many European Union projects and grant projects on Roma culture. He has been working as the Secretary General of Konak City Council in Konak Municipality, where he did his internship in 2000, and he is the Director of Roma associations in various districts of İzmir.

Betül Karagöz Yerdelen completed the Bachelor’s degree in Technology Education at Gazi University and continued her academic career at Ankara University. She holds two Master’s degrees in Culture and Art Sciences (1999) and in Political Sciences (2003) and two PhD degrees in Culture and Art Sciences (2003) and in Political Sciences (2008). Since 2009, she has been an Academic Fellow with the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Department of International Relations, University of Giresun. From 2011 to 2012, she was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Political Sciences at the University of Kansas, where she became an Associate Professor in Political Life and Institutions – Regional Studies in 2012. She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. Prior to joining to the University of Giresun, she worked as a teacher, a writer, the director and the production manager on educational broadcasting at the Ministry of National Education in Ankara. She has authored many articles, papers and books. Her main fields of research are political institutionalisation and state transformation; comparing the founding conditions of constitutions and their international effects; imperialism and hegemony; the problem of failed states, social movements, humanitarian intervention; cultural-political violence and trans-boundary identity problem; regional-global studies in the fields of the concept of global ural altay, economy-politics of Turkophone and international nationalism.

Merve Yildirim was born in Ankara and lives in Giresun. She received the degree from the Faculty of Vocational Education, Department of Graphic Design, Gazi University in 1995, the Master’s degree with the Department of Fine Arts Education, Institute of Educational Sciences at Gazi University in 2010 and the PhD degree from the Fine Arts Department, Gazi University Educational Sciences Teaching in 2013. The reflection of symbols to the art of ex libris in the historical background and the model proposal in the Department of Visual Communication and Graphic Design in the Faculty of Fine Arts. In 2014, she was an Assistant Professor. She has opened personal national and international exhibitions and also attended in many group exhibitions. She is the Founding Member of the Global Street Economics Platform who is working on the design of streets. She is currently the Head of the Graphic Design Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Giresun University.

Foreword

We congratulate Dr Osman Sirkeci who chose to carry out his post-doctoral research on the global street economy at the University of Malta. During this time, he organised an international conference which attracted various academics of international repute. The event was also attended by Dr Justyne Caruana, the Honorable Minister for Gozo, who emphasised, during the opening speech, that although Malta is a small island state, the street economy has played an important role in the socio-economic life of the Maltese people. As Dr Sirkeci argues, the street economy has always had a crucial impact on the externalities and failures of market economies, and hence it deserves much more attention from a global perspective than it currently has. The aim of this publication is to highlight the increasing importance of the street economy in the economic literature and to investigate this phenomenon from different perspectives. I wish success to all street economy employees and researchers, and hope that this volume will generate more interest on the global street economy phenomenon.

Prof. Dr Frank Bezzina,

Dean of FEMA, University of Malta

Preface

This study has emerged as a collective result of 30 years of observation and five years of intensive research and investigation. Concepts of street economy and street entrepreneurship have emerged through the micro-scale craftsmanship, which is a part of Osman Sirkeci’s own life for decades, the direct execution of peddling and marketing and the simultaneous observation of the data obtained as a result of the compilation and analysis of information obtained. Dr Sirkeci has come up with the concept of street economy, by compiling his own experiences as a child, selling vegetables in the streets with his father, with data obtained from hundreds of face-to-face interviews with local and foreign street workers, who are working as a peddler, street artist, street worker in the streets, sidewalks, at the beaches and in the markets in countless countries around the world.

The originality and importance of the concept of street economics stems from the in-depth examination of the failures of the market economy and the externalities of the market economy, which are seen as superficial problems in the science of economics, and finding its counterexamples in the field. Global trade-based market economy and capitalism reached global domination in the sixteenth century, after six centuries of development and maturation. Since then, many problems that have been entrusted to the skill of the ‘magic hand’ of the market economy have not been solved for 150 years, and these problems have produced their own solution on the streets, partly inside and outside the market economy.

It is known from the databases of various institutions, such as the International Labour Organisation (ILO) or the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, that 3.5 billion people are currently employed worldwide. However, according to estimates, 2 billion people are working in the streets. Global developments show that the state sector and big companies cannot create more new jobs. Another known fact is that world population is increasing day by day, and this fact has had different consequences such as immigration problems, increasing unemployment and social problems in the European countries, US, India and some other countries in the last 15–20 years. They have begun to implement various measures and produce incentive and support programmes to create new business opportunities.

Currently, together with these 2 billion street vendors, 7.5 billion people in the world continue to pay a wide variety of taxes every day. But these incentive funds, which are generated from the same taxes, provide support and incentives exclusively for the registered sectors. These 2 billion ‘StreetPreneurs’ are excluded from all supports, consultancy services and other incentives. This unequal application is also contrary to the principles of fair use of tax. It is not possible to accept this view as an equitable, just and egalitarian situation.

In this case, it is primarily the task of the scientists to work on this giant cluster that is externalised by the market economy in order to clarify their role and importance. Two billion people, who are not included in the registered economic activities in the free market economy, are the subject of this work. The project fundamentally investigates how we can get the real tax information from the 2 billion street vendors by voluntarily registering as successful businesses.

The aim of Dr Sirkeci in developing the concept of street economics is to investigate a group of entrepreneurs who are called ‘the tax evaders’, ‘the informal economy’ and ‘the shadow economy’ outside the known reality of the established economy. Main idea behind this project and Dr Sirkeci’s lifelong dream is to establish a Global Street Workers Union – Self Workers Global (SWG) to integrate street workers worldwide into urban life, accreditation and recognition at national level, legal status, being able to organise in appropriate forms of organisation and having health and social security opportunities.

As we are writing this book today, Global Street Workers Union – SWG has already been established within ILO and announced to the world on the 18th of June in Geneva. Coming to this point required industrious and consistent work and effort both in national and international levels.

At the national level, with the meetings held on the role and function of the street in various provinces in Turkey, the subject has been brought to the attention of numerous media representatives, academicians, politicians, mayors, non-governmental organisation representatives, city council presidents and Roma association managers. Thus, the importance of the street economy and the fact that it is an integral part of urban life has become widely accepted.

In the recognition of this project, there are three events, which are worth to mention as important milestones. The first one, which is also the birthplace of the idea of Global Street Workers Union, is the First International Global Street Economy and Third Democracy Conference held in Malta on 1–3 October 2018 under the honorary presidency of Dr Justyne Caruana, the Honourable Minister for Gozo – Malta. The main objective of this conference was to contribute to the global unity of street workers. The second one was the Street Economy Workshop held in Ankara by the main opposition party in Turkey with wide participation on 15 February 2019. Being invited as a guest to the Street Food Festival and 150th anniversary of Indra Gandhi’s birthday, organised by the national coordinator of the Indian street vendors confederation, once again confirmed the international content and importance of the work. The final event, which is worth to mention as a revolutionary step in local governments is the foundation of Street Economy Department in Izmir Municipality in Turkey.

This research and project topic ‘Street Economics’, is being carried out with the support of both University of Malta through the help of governmental institutions and relevant ministries and also Giresun University. We give our warmest thanks to Dr Simon Grima who opened the doors of the University of Malta for us to carry our study to global dimensions, Dean of the Faculty of FEMA. Dr Frank Bezzina and Dr Justyne Caruana for hosting and supporting the First International Global Street Economy and Third Democracy Conference held in Malta.

We also thank to Giresun University Rector Prof. Dr Cevdet Coşkun who support us among all the difficulties of academic life in bringing these studies to these dimensions and to Prof. Dr Betül Karagöz Yerdelen, Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, who has given us an important depth especially in terms of political science.

Last but not the least, we also thank our Indian friends, Arbind Singh, Anurag Shanker, Shri Ram, Anuradha Singh, Kumar Sapkota from Nepal and the countless silent heroes of the streets. We would like to thank the founders of SWG, Argentina’s Oscar Silva and Spain’s Cesar Garcia Alan, for their contribution to the globalisation and institutionalisation of the work.

Dr. Simon Grima, Dr Osman Sirkeci, and Prof. Dr Kamuran Elbeyoğlu

Giresun, Turkey, 2019