Abstract/Summary

This paper will explore how mobile-based GPS methods can advance insights into young itinerant vendors’ informal livelihood mobilities. It will examine the practicalities of using a GPS-based method in a Majority World context whilst also discussing the merits of combining this approach with mobile methods. At later stages of the research process, GPS maps were adapted so that participants could annotate the GPS tracks created of their routes. Discussions will detail how this afforded insights into the spatial knowledges and strategies young people employed, as well as the embodied encounters they experienced, as they traversed various urban landscapes in search of income. The ethical issues of using GPS technology ‘on the move’, and the impact that my presence had whilst I accompanied participants as they undertook their businesses, will also be discussed. The paper concludes that mobile-based GPS techniques can be used in innovative and creative ways to develop understandings into the complex and diverse nature and experiences of young people’s mobile livelihood activities.