Exploring the Impact of the Coronavirus on street vendors activities in Kermanshah, Iran

The Coronavirus has affected not only public health in the last 2 years, but also has caused national and economic challenges all over the world. Informal sectors suffered mostly in this predicament and led to drastic shortage in their quality of life. Informal sectors are considered as one of the most fundamental actors in economic prosperity of the cities and urban space dynamism. Since there are few studies addressing this group, the main objective of this article is to explore and identify the most important dimensions of corona virus which hurt life and business of street vendors as a group of informal workers. A qualitative approach was chosen in order to gather the gist of changes and shortages in vendor’s life. Using content analysis method, 23 in-depth interviews were conducted in Kermanshah streets in Iran. Six major dimensions were extracted using coding mechanism: economic, health, ethical and normative, educational and managerial, psychological dimensions. The result shows that this group has suffered irreparable damage in mentioned areas during pandemic. From the economic point of view, the poor are stuck in a cycle of poverty, and the Corona crisis has taken away any chance of getting out of this cycle. Also, the psychological feeling of being ignored along with the feeling of shame and helplessness (towards the family and society) has greatly expanded the boundaries of the impact of this phenomenon. An aspect which effects the social resilience of urban communities and need further investigation.