A Gendered Lens on Mediation and Market Governance: Experiences of Women Market Vendors in Papua New Guinea

Abstract

The majority of market vendors at urban informal markets in Papua New Guinea are women. They face vulnerabilities related to safety, security and infrastructural support. They operate within male-dominated mediation structures where women’s contributions to mediation and market governance are often invisible. However, in this article, we demonstrate how women market vendors contribute to the social aspect of market governance, particularly addressing issues of law and order within Awagasi market. Through the efforts of women vendors in mediation and conflict management, safety in the market and normal operation of the informal market have improved. The study involved 18 women market vendors, as well as male market vendors, at Awagasi market. It used focus group discussions, interviews and creative mapping to examine the different roles of women market vendors regarding mediation and market governance at Awagasi market. The study revealed the different roles women play and their social innovations in keeping peace and order in the market. Recognising women’s agency in conflict management can support the promotion and strengthening of safe market spaces in urban environments.

1. Introduction

Urban markets, whether they are informal or formal, are pivotal to states and their citizens. They play the roles of revenue generation for the government, generating wage income and providing fresh produce and meat to the urban populace [1]. Women play a key role in urban informal market spaces, both as vendors and customers. Women make a large contribution to urban economies—through paid and unpaid labour—and much of this work goes unnoticed [2]. In the Pacific, a large percentage of women are engaged in informal market activities and, as such, are key managers and providers for urban families [3].

Markets are important institutions in the Pacific. An important source of revenue for governments, they supply fresh produce and are crucial for livelihoods as a source of income. However, the informal spaces are undervalued and under-resourced by the government. Keen and Ride [4] (p. 2) noted the following:

“Few cities in the Pacific have supportive policy frameworks for informal economic activities despite their prevalence and persistence. Where policies exist, they are often punitive and top-down, restricting people’s agency and innovation; and even when policies are supportive of the informal sector, such as in Papua New Guinea (PNG), markets can remain precarious and without services.”

Women market vendors, particularly across Melanesia, are marginalised and have limited official roles of market governance in urban informal settlements, even though women have a dominant presence in the market as both buyers and sellers [5] (p. 1). Underhill-Sem et al. [3] noted that while many women become full members of market associations, they continue to be underrepresented in decision-making roles in the market’s governance.

Various contributory factors conspire to restrict women’s capacity to play governance and leadership roles in urban market spaces, including customary norms, religion, diverse cultures and conservative patriarchal values in the leadership [1]. And yet studies have shown that women make meaningful contributions in the areas of market governance [5] (p. 1). Women vendors play substitutive roles of mediation and market governance in the absence of formal forms of market governance [6]. In this study, we investigated the question of how women actively play a role in the urban market and how they contribute to improvements and community development within their market spaces.

In particular, this article captures and shares the often invisible perspectives of the women market vendors on their roles in market governance. This is because sociopolitical factors continue to play a significant role in denying the rights of women to leadership and decision-making in PNG. The study focused on market vendors at the urban market Awagasi in Lae City, PNG. Market governance is discussed as the social authority women vendors use to manage the affairs of the market. Capturing their perspectives provides a better understanding of the impacts of their governance roles and the alternative trajectories they create to achieve market governance outcomes. We sought to contribute to gender considerations of governance and literature on locally based conflict management.

We focused on exploring the concept of social innovation as “innovation in social relations”, and the actions and processes that lead to improvements in social relations [7]. The scholarly discourse around social innovation has been largely informed by the European context. Social innovation has been described as “the reconfiguring of social practices, in response to societal challenges, which seeks to enhance outcomes on societal well-being” [8] (p. 1) and might lead to citizens playing a more active role in their communities [9]. Women-led initiatives, in particular, seek to challenge and actively disrupt the status quo to reconfigure social relations to achieve gender-just outcomes [10]. With regards to the context of the study, that means unpacking patriarchal structures and their relation to harmful gender norms.

This article begins the discussion with the obstacles and challenges women market vendors face and why a gendered lens is important. In particular, we focus on Pacific and Papua New Guinean contexts. The article then presents the findings from focus groups, interviews and creative workshops with market vendors to explore considerations around safety, governance and mediation. We investigated the following question: what are some of the social innovations in the urban market that consider and are informed by gender relations? To understand how women navigate market spaces, we framed the inquiry around the sub-question of how women harness social, cultural and relational approaches to support safety in the market. The study contributes to an understanding of social innovation in the governance of informal urban market spaces, and foregrounds how women utilise social capital and social relations to actively contribute to the community’s development.

2. Background

2.1. Women and Informal Markets

In developing countries, markets provide important informal employment for women to support their livelihoods.

“The informal economy has been considered as a possible fallback position for women who are excluded from paid employment. It is often the only source of income for women in the developing world, especially in those areas where cultural norms bar them from work outside the home or where, because of conflict with household responsibilities, they cannot undertake regular employee working hours.”

[11] (p. 10)

Despite women boosting economic growth by making a significant contribution to the processes of economic development and their high participation in the informal market, gender-based and structural inequalities continue to have repercussions on women in the informal market. Women are further confronted with the core challenges of deficient and underserviced infrastructure, space constraints, domestic violence, increased susceptibility to health and safety risks and unsafe working conditions [12]. Aiming to reach a level of financial security to meet basic needs, women are increasingly susceptible to unhealthy and unsanitary working conditions in the informal market, dealing with physical risks that can pave the way for both communicable and non-communicable infections [13]. In line with Ghosh [12], it is therefore important to bring a gendered lens to those working in informal sectors to understand the power imbalances and structural inequalities that women are experiencing.

As Rooney [14] (p. 156) pointed out, there has been limited attention and focus on women’s roles at markets, particularly smaller markets. Developing an understanding of the role of market women and their contributions to the informal economy in urban centres contributes to consciously making their economic, social and physical contributions visible. Chant [15] promoted using a gender lens to understand women’s roles in the informal market space and the disparities they face in urban centres. This “calls for analysis that not only takes into account socially constructed differences among women and men but also recognises that gender is a multi-dimensional and intersectional concept” [15] (p. 10).

Often, urban market spaces, especially informal market spaces, lack government provisions pertaining to reliable and functioning amenities. This is further exacerbated by the lack of security and safety provisions for women, such as in PNG [16] (p. 7). Here, women’s roles in understanding the safety and security of people inside and outside the city, and their representation and participation in mediating peace in communities, are multi-dimensional [6] (pp. 4–5), [4] (p. 2). A gender lens is applicable for bringing out women’s roles and their contributions in mediation processes in the informal market space, as little focus is accorded to women’s contributions to conflict management in marketplaces [17].

It has often been considered a male’s job to manage market conflict and dispute resolution through mediation proceedings. However, women play important roles in addressing conflict in the market and should be recognised as active contributors to peacebuilding processes and ensuring safe spaces within their communities. As such, UN Resolution 1325 supports the inclusion of women in the peace-making and peace-building processes at the community tier, while also successfully contributing to mediation and governance roles. Because of limited institutional support, Pacific women are more likely to draw on their social relationships and networks to facilitate local value systems to ensure they are able to participate in urban market activities [4] (p. 2).

2.2. Women and Informal Economic Activities in Papua New Guinea and the Pacific

The informal market is a prevalent and persistent form of employment for urban residents across the Pacific. It is a cornerstone in urban centres [18]. It is essentially important to Pacific communities in creating an economy that provides jobs in Pacific cities [1]. Informal markets in PNG are places where agricultural produce and manufactured goods are sold for an income. In addition, informal marketplaces in PNG are centres for meetings and socialising [19]. PNG’s government recognises the informal market as a grassroots expression [20].

The main people occupying the informal market are women. Their presence is dominant in the markets in the Pacific [3]. About 70–84% of women are employed in the informal marketplace [21]. Women participate in the informal market to generate an income for themselves and their families, and to access livelihood opportunities to improve their economic status [22]. Despite women’s pivotal roles in facilitating economic activities and generating an income in the informal market, women face many challenges such as unsanitary and precarious working environments [18]. Further to this, Hukula stated that women and girls face harassment by young men fuelled by alcohol and substance abuse. Women face multiple forms of insecurity, exploitation, physical violence and stigma that hinder their ability to reach their social and economic potential [21].

From the standpoint of Melanesia, women are linked to families and societies [23]. Melanesian women have social relationships in a Melanesian village and are an integral aspect of Melanesian society. Women apply their skills and knowledge to bring wealth to support their families in times of crisis. Melanesian women consider themselves as part of the clan they originate from, and they conduct their life’s affairs from that lens [23]. They contribute and play essential roles to ensure the family’s socioeconomic well-being, maintain relationships with families and relatives, and link families between islands and countries. The resources that flow within the families’ and communities’ network strengthen ties and creates the possibility for opportunities. These were the same sentiments shared by Keen and Ride in their study on women and markets in the Solomon Islands:

“…most respondents in the community markets we studied felt secure because of kin and community relationships within the market, and between the markets and the adjacent community. Low-level security concerns still exist with respect to drinking, bullying and theft, but the stronger the links between the local community and the market, the better these issues are managed”

[4] (p. 2)

Despite the fact that urban settlements are seen as “disorderly, neglectful, unpredictable, and unaccountable” [6] (p. 3), those that live in urban settlements, such as Port Moresby and Lae, are invested in making them better and liveable.

“People are prepared to invest a major, and at times astonishing, quantity of their time and capital in these everyday forms, functions, and regulatory processes in order to stretim hevi [in Tok Pisin (PNG’s most widely used language): solve problems] and create gutpela sindaun [good, liveable places].”

[6] (p. 4)

People living in urban informal settlements come together and invest in creating and sustaining local mechanisms to protect their ability to accumulate capital [6] (p. 4) in support of the well-being of their community. Here, men and women must work together and support each other to thrive in these tenuous spaces to achieve positive social change [24]. While the overall study explored the ideas around the safety and resilience of women vendors, an aspect of this study sought to better understand how market vendors in Awagasi manage their daily engagement with urban informal market spaces. The goal was twofold: to understand what needs women have in urban informal market spaces, and to recognise their existing strength, agency and social innovations regarding the safety and support of women in market spaces.

3. Methods

This article drew on data collected over 3 months of fieldwork by the female lead author. The co-authors collaborated on the research design, regular reflections, and the analysis and write-up. Fieldwork was conducted at Awagasi market in Kamkumung settlement in Lae City in Morobe Province of PNG. The study enrolled female and male market vendor participants who conduct informal trade at Awagasi market. They reside in five informal settlements around Kamkumung settlement, namely Mata, Peter, Talair, Asu and Awagasi Duo Blocks. The recruitment of the market vendors was based on their residence of more than 5 years in Kamkumung market and their regularity of being market vendors. Snowball sampling that flowed from one original known contact was used to identify the vendor participants. Participants hailed from various socioeconomic backgrounds from all over PNG. They were asked to share personal narratives about their roles in market governance at Awagasi market.

This qualitative research used three methods for data collection: focus group discussions (six), face-to-face interviews (seven) and creative workshop activities over 1 week, which included photovoice and creative mapping. After each research session, the research team had a reflection session to discuss emerging results from the research. The reflections helped to guide the subsequent research activities.

A relational research approach was used to guide the interviews, focus group discussions and creative activities to ensure that the participants and their relationships with each other were respected. While scripts were prepared for the interviews and focus groups, they were semi-structured to allow relevant conversations to emerge from the interactions. Questions were related to understanding the roles both women and men played in market governance, and the participants’ perspectives on market safety. With regards to the creative activities, in this article, we only present the findings from creative mapping, not the photovoice workshops. The research sought to understand how women harnessed social, cultural and relational approaches to ensure safety in the market.

The interviewing approach provided an opportunity for the participants to share their experiences on the topic in the form of narratives on their own terms [25]. The stories brought out complex human experiences that connected with the totality of the interviewees’ environments. Importantly, this process enabled interviewees from different socio-economic and cultural backgrounds to interpret their experiences [26] of their roles in market governance. They brought to the discussion individual local voices from a marginalised segment of the population.

The focus group discussions facilitated interactive, cohesive and direct communication that supported reflections among the participants about their individual life narratives and experiences. It also enabled the facilitator to be intuitive in allowing the natural process of sharing to evolve. The focus group discussions triggered storytelling that brought out the individuals’ perspectives and worldviews on their unique roles in managing the affairs of the market.

Creative workshops and creative art forms uncover tacit layers of knowledge and privilege participants’ voices that are often not seen in research. In this case, the “arts-based methodologies bring both arts and social inquiry out of the elitist institutions of academe… and relocate inquiry within the realm of local, personal, everyday places and events” [27] (p. 72). At informal markets, women’s roles are not apparent, nor are they appreciated for the innovations they cultivate in reconfiguring social and cultural relationships in communities. The manifestation of knowledge enabled through the creative workshops provided open and dialogical spaces for engagement.

The workshop commenced with the individual storytelling session, followed by creative mapping activities. This method was adopted to explicate the interaction between the quality of the environment and how spaces are used [28]. The process explored how market vendors at Awagasi characterised the market area into safe and unsafe market spaces, and how the unsafe spaces could be transformed into safe and liveable spaces. Local materials and objects such as stones, dried leaves, green leaves, coloured flowers, and pieces of fresh and dried sticks were used to indicate safe and unsafe spaces. The participants held group presentations of the maps of Awagasi market as creative outputs with others to value and learn from each other’s artistic market maps.

The research methods were further applied to capture the roles of women market vendors in market governance and their roles in the mediation process. Sessions for the research activities were recorded using a portable recorder. The recordings in Tok Pisin and English were transcribed in textual documents which were used for data analysis. All researchers were familiar with both languages. The texts were analysed thematically to reveal the layers of meanings in lived experiences [29]. The key results are presented below and formed the basis of the discussion of the study. The research team obtained permission from the landowner of Awagasi market, community leaders and the landlords of Kamkumung settlement both verbally and in writing. Permission to conduct this research was granted for a 3-month period. The study was limited by the timeframe, as well as the focus on one location, as it sought to provide an in-depth understanding of the context and the relationships within the urban market.

4. Results

Women market vendors at Awagasi market hail from different regions in PNG. Their reasons for migrating to Lae City are diverse. These range from seeking better employment opportunities to fleeing tribal fights, natural disasters and lack of accessibility to better services in rural centres. Women regularly join their husbands, who might have formal employment in Lae. Upon arriving in Lae, they often join a household owned by their relative through blood or kin-based relationships, as accommodation in Lae City is scarce. In this section, we will share the findings from the study to better understand women market vendors’ motivations and challenges, and their contributions to market governance leadership and conflict management.

4.1. Women Vendors’ Motivations and Challenges of Safe and Unsafe Market Spaces

Participants shared their experiences during the mapping workshop about the challenges they face and their motivations to conduct informal economic activities at Awagasi market. Financial constraints are a common challenge and motivation to be involved in the sale of agricultural produce. Participants expressed that they wanted the best for their children. They described their goals and dreams of owning their own block of land or operating a trade store. One of the participants described her goal for conducting betelnut sales at Awagasi market.

“I have two boys, I want their future to be better, and not like mine, who struggle to sell betelnut to meet my needs every day. I want them to stay in school and work hard at it so they can find good jobs and think about their siblings and have better future. That’s why I am at the market.”

(female participant) [30]

Another significant challenge described was that of disturbances and safety issues, as they threaten the women’s ability to earn an income and provide for their families. As part of the creative workshops, participants mapped the market spaces in terms of safe and unsafe spaces.

Awagasi market sits on customary land and is administered according to the landowner’s discretion on how the land should be used to achieve certain goals in accordance with traditional values. These attributes exist because of the customary landholders, who own the land without interference from the state. In this respect, the customary land is excluded from the state’s planning regulations [31]. Participants from the workshop were able to visually represent these spaces. They used local objects to reveal the locations of unsafe spaces and used red objects to symbolise danger on the creative maps of Awagasi market (see Figure 1). One participant described her map as follows:

“…this is the map of Awagasi market, which we drew […] The red colour on the map represents unsafe spaces. We want consumption of alcohol in the market to stop.”

(female participant) [30]

The maps that the participants drew engaged with the allocation of safe market spaces to sell specific goods. The space along the one-sided fence was allocated for the sale of greens and vegetables, and for church groups to conduct outreach programs. Women and girls dominate the leafy greens and vegetables section. According to a participant, “the place where women vendors sell their greens is free from trouble and is a safe place” (female participant) [30]. All participants indicated that the market space where women were selling vegetables was a safe space, whereas other areas, such as where buai (betelnut) sales were conducted, were described as less safe. Participants discussed that this space was less safe due to “drunkard local male youths and those that smoke marijuana” (female participant) [30]. Participants shared that the young men often occupy the space for selling betelnut and argue with the betelnut vendors, grabbing sellers’ betelnuts without their permission. Women and girls refrain from accessing the betelnut sales area in fear of being harassed by men.

“When the drunkard people come to the market, they go straight to betelnut section and incite a quarrel with table market vendors, and grab their betelnut and smoke, and that is when fights occur.”

(male participant) [30]

Other market spaces, identified and shown on the maps of Awagasi market drawn by the participants, included the market’s waste disposal places at the end of the market. These were considered unsafe because of the health risks they pose.

“Waste disposal places are unsafe, and we indicated it with red and when we walk past the rubbish place, we block our noses to prevent breathing in the bad odour from decomposition of the market waste.”

(male participant) [30]

Participants using Awagasi market made suggestions to improve their safety and well-being during the mapping workshop. These included measures such as the erection of market fencing, the establishment of security guards, setting market by-laws, preventing intoxicated people from entry to the market, provision of employment for unemployed youths, engagement of waste collection services by Lae City Council and building a market with signage as a “safe women’s market” (male participant) (see Figure 2).

4.2. Innovations in Market Governance and Leadership

While there are serious health, safety and security threats that women vendors experience, participants spoke about the leadership of managing the market and how this provided systems they leveraged to support their safety and movements within the market. Participants talked much about the leadership of the market owner, Hiob Awagasi, who is also a local landowner. The landowner purposefully developed innovative strategies to ensure women were represented in decision-making and were involved in the market governance committee.

“…women’s leadership inside the market is important. Mothers know their roles because they play bigger roles to take care of their own homes and they work hard at the market.”

(male participant) [32]

In a strong patriarchal culture where this attitude can be ridiculed by other males, the Awagasi market owner provided leadership in shifting social and cultural norms. His approach was informed by care and empathy for mothers as the most affected by safety and security issues at the market.

“Sometimes their husbands get angry with them, but mothers work hard to earn money to put food on the table. So, such conflict exists but mothers know their rights to protect themselves. We talk about gender equality, violence against women; we need women leadership to address these issues.”

(male participant) [32]

The market owner supports the recognition of the leadership of women as key providers of a home, the need to ensure that their needs are heard at various committees and village courts, and ensuring that laws designed to protect them are implemented. Women leaders, in return, commented on how this respect between male and female leaders is beneficial to the wider community.

“The male leaders respect us women leaders; we women leaders also respect the male leaders, so we hold the same positions inside our Awagasi community.”

(female participant) [33]

This is particularly poignant, given that it is often critiqued that urban market spaces in PNG do not place importance on women, their safety and their well-being. This awareness of men and women working together in decision-making is a shift in social relations from the norm in PNG’s communities. A female participant talked about the market being the community’s responsibility:

“Settlement community here must be responsible for Awagasi market; we must feel that it is a place where we earn for our living, and our mothers use this place to earn in income, so we must feel responsible of this market. When problems occur, we must solve them and if they escalate, we must seek help from the police to solve the problems.”

(female participant) [34]

With this foundation of reciprocal relations and a level of agency, women have developed strategies for how they address issues. Women saw their roles as important for protecting other women and working together to ensure that they have mechanisms for safety.

“Our work as women leader involves looking after the needs of women, in particular younger women; we work closely with the male leaders to ensure that we have a peaceful community.”

(female participant) [33]

In the following section, we focus on women’s conflict management strategies. This contributes to the visibility of these strategies.

4.3. Women Vendors’ Strategies in Conflict Management

Women vendor participants described the various roles they played in maintaining peace at the market and the strategies they used. Especially in the area where sales of betelnuts are conducted, women are constantly negotiating their safety and find ways to make the perpetrators accountable for their actions. The roles that women market vendors play in the prevention of violence illustrate their dependence on the market for urban livelihoods, their desire for a peaceful community, and their abilities to proactively manage the law and order issues of the marketplace when the presence of formal law-enforcing agencies’ is minimally felt. They rely on the market committee’s mediations, the market owner, and the local police within the market and in the city of Lae itself, to resolve conflicts.

Within the market system, there are local mediation committees where women play a role by stimulating dialogues about finding peaceful solutions to issues in the market, and participate in the mediation processes to end conflicts. It is a community-based system that is recognised as a substitute means, used in place of a formal mediation capacity. It comprises locally appointed leaders representing different provinces in PNG. The community leaders mediate differences between contending factions at a designated venue and time. Women in Awagasi are appointed as committee members to participate in the decision-making process of the mediation committee. They work alongside the male mediation committee members to resolve conflicts in the settlement and market communities.

After the occurrence of a fight between the two contending parties, the mediation committee is approached to mediate the dispute, or a female or male leader calls a mediation meeting to resolve the issue. A serious dispute that cannot be mediated in the presence of the landlord and the community leaders is referred to the local council level. However, a non-serious dispute is resolved at the market level in the presence of the settlement’s community leaders, including the landlord, who is the chairman of the market committee.

“If there is a conflict, we bring both parties together to sit with us and for us to assess the situation. We often find that we need to resolve issues the PNG way, to say sorry, it can mean a lot.”

(female participant) [33]

Resolving an issue the PNG way also means coming to a resolution that restores relationships for the well-being of the community. For example, in some instances, intoxicated young men have caused issues, including destroying women’s stalls, with the consequence of the landowner closing the market. Through mediation, the market committee resolved that the young men should compensate the women. If the young men did not have enough to pay their debts, other young men might help them to do so. In some cases, even the women and buai sellers contributed to paying compensation. According to a female market vendor,

“…sometimes when problems happen at the market, when they say let us solve the problem, we, the table mothers, market mothers and betelnut sellers, think about our market and contribute money ourselves.”

(female participant) [33]

Market closure means loss of business, and loss of business means no food and no income for market sellers. Women emphasised working closely with the market owner, and described that his presence and authority supported the de-escalation of tense situations.

“Community leaders help quickly and stop people from hitting and quarrelling with one another. One thing is that the landowner of the market quickly stands against this, so the male youths get afraid of him. So, when problems start and he gets up and stands in the middle, fighting with another goes down quickly.”

(female participant) [33]

The overarching reason for women’s role in crime prevention is to ensure the normal operation of the market without disruption. In Awagasi, women build social contracts through various relationships—with the rowdy young men, the market owner, the local police and the committee members—to protect their market space and keep it open. Their work further extends to issues families might be experiencing. Here, women leaders emphasised the need to work collectively:

“When we see that there is an issue in a family, we women leaders come together and discuss how we can help to resolve the issue. It is not enough just for me as female leader to do something, I must get the other leaders involved, so that we can collectively address the issue.”

(female participant) [33]

Safety and security for women were the main concerns emerging from the focus groups and mapping workshops. One way to protect the women vendors, as suggested by the participants, is through the development of market infrastructure such as a market fence and security systems. One participant further suggested the development of a policy for the market. The market owner spoke strongly about creating a partnership with government and non-government organisations to support the development of the land with improved market infrastructure. This would increase women’s roles in sustaining safety and economic activities. This was supported by a focus group participant:

“We would like the government to collaborate with us to address mothers’ and young women’s safety. I think the government, NGO and all of us should partner because this safety is our responsibility.”

(female participant) [34]

The research with market vendors at Awagasi demonstrated a strong awareness around safety and security issues for women and girls. Women are actively involved in the mediation processes and conflict management at Awagasi market. They extend their networks widely as they work collectively to maintain social relations and peace within their community.

5. Discussion

In the context of PNG, patriarchal structures of leadership dominate, evident, for example, in the challenges that face aspiring women politicians entering politics. This involves a demarcation of men occupying the decision-making positions versus women placed in the domestic spaces. Without systemic changes that provide women a space where their contributions can be respected, structures privilege male dominance and leadership. The research with market vendors at Awagasi market demonstrated social innovations by men, led by the market owner, in developing the systems to support women in decision-making about the safety of the market. At the same time, women developed socially innovative strategies, drawing from their Indigenous knowledge systems, to counter harmful cultural norms, and collectively navigate social relations for the benefit of the larger community. In the following discussion, we contextualise the contributions of the study within the wider conversation of the contributions of women and the need to apply a gender lens to social processes, innovations and relations at informal markets.

5.1. Activating Social Relationships and Social Bonds

To a significant degree, women take up various roles in the informal market, which make them distinctively important. However, little attention has been given to the roles of women in that space, and their roles in the community have been ostensibly devalued [14,35]. Often, they are seen from the lens of passivity and vulnerability, despite the significant role they play in daily generation and sustenance of life in urban centres [15]. Keen and Ride [4], in their study of women market vendors in the Solomon Islands, noted a similar situation and argued that “the role of women and community markets in building social relationships and contributing to security often sit in the ‘shadows’ of social consciousness” (p. 1). While social relationships and social bonds are activated to enhance safety for women, often, these relationships are not taken into consideration by donors and international aid agencies working on improving urban market spaces. Within this study, women and men demonstrated a working relationship to increase their safety and security in Awagasi market.

“In the absence of effective or responsive state institutions, local activists and social innovators, many of them women, are driving violence prevention and resolution efforts. They leverage their social networks and insider knowledge to foster sustainable changes and can reach populations that conventionally designed programs often miss.”

[36] (p. 13)

The majority of participants described their roles in the prevention of fights at the market as a self-initiated conflict management approach. This method requires pooling internal resources and mobilising individual and collective efforts towards peace-building. In this case, utilising internal resources is required to substitute for scarce external resources. In Awagasi market, residents and women in particular draw on hybrid processes of the state and customary processes of regulation and mediation. Craig and Porter [6] described the co-existence of local practices and formal state entities as a process to:

“…‘co-produce’ authority and regulation by enrolling the support of residents and by impacting and working together with fellow recognized ethnic and other leaders. In doing so, albeit with highly uneven effectiveness in relation to gender and violence, they can help produce, combine, and protect some of the rich but precarious capital that is produced and accumulates in urban settlements.”

(p. 5)

Women vendors described taking swift responses to resolve conflict by drawing on hybrid processes of interventions. It could be argued that one of the reasons why they are able to mediate tenuous spaces is because of the investments settlement communities make into the local regulation of settlements. The extensive knowledge that market women have about the nature of market conflict enables them to work with community leaders, landlords and police to take a joint conflict management approach. Craig, Porter and Hukula [37] discussed how those mediating conflict have developed hybrid processes that draw on Indigenous and customary approaches to peace-building—a way of resolving disputes unique to specific groups of people, tracing back to their home, district or province of origin. They noted the communal approach to a dispute often caused by a member of a family, friend group, tribal group or community, and observed that others invest considerable resources in the form of money, time and material goods. Among those who invest resources in the mediation are the women market vendors, who invest money and material wealth towards resolving the dispute.

5.2. Women Taking Charge of Market Spaces

Women vendors have provided a collaborative space to listen to each other, fostering emotional stability and support for fellow market vendors and families. Busse and Sharp [38] discussed market spaces in PNG not just as places of transactions but places that are part of the day-to-day life of people and how relationships are contingent on the interactions with each other in these spaces. They talk about non-economic activities that transpire in marketplaces that contribute “to our understanding of social obligations and moral economic activities in PNG’s marketplaces and the moral values to which those practices and activities give rise” [38] (p. 133). Relationships are important, and while some of the young people have caused trouble, women felt compelled to assist in paying off their debt. Women, in some instances, felt compelled to provide advice and guidance to young people and families, encouraging them to engage in opportunities that benefit their lives.

Underhill-Sem et al. [3] talked about a radical approach to support gender parity. They argued for women to be “recognised as astute political subjects making decisions based on complex and diverse bodies of knowledge, often while they are in marginalised, insecure and unsafe situations.” [3] (p. 307). In Awagasi market, one of the key roles women play is by taking charge of the market space by contributing to peace-building and peace-making. They ensure safety by immediately reporting any market issues that could pose a threat of disrupting the normal operation of the market to the market committee. If the market problem is serious in nature and requires the police’s intervention, the women vendors swiftly refer the issue to the nearby Omili police station for their immediate attention. In other instances, the women draw support from their social relations, talk with each other, and solve the conflict informally in an amicable manner. The women harness social bonds, capital and networks to contribute to conflict management. What emerged from this study and from other research around settlements is the internal mechanism that draws from customary and village court interventions that the community has invested in to make their homes safe. Women in Awagasi market demonstrated a deep understanding of the social relationships, moral transgressions, dilemmas and tensions in these spaces. They draw on mechanisms that help set up social relationships to mediate their responses to these tensions.

Women access spaces to demonstrate their leadership and their roles as social innovators in the marketplace. Their notable contributions and roles include investing in social relations to resolve conflicts through mediation processes, holding the perpetrators responsible, keeping an eye on the daily affairs of the market, and nurturing collective action to access opportunities for mutual benefit. Women’s mediation and governance practices, such as referring matters and perpetrators to the police and landlord, contributing material goods to resolve conflict, guiding peace with regards to vendor relations and informing the mediation committee to mediate conflicts, have contributed to safety at Awagasi market.

5.3. Men’s Roles in Supporting Women’s Safety

The way in which settlements are perceived has obscured the initiatives of how settlements are addressing safety and security issues. Craig and Porter [6] found social innovation and regulations that addressed varying issues in settlement communities, and noted that “stigma is getting in the way of appreciating the notable and substantial contribution that local institutions and leaders are making to urban regulation” (p. 3).

For women vendors in Awagasi, an informal urban market, security is a concern. Women experience physical and verbal forms of violence that are a blight on women’s lives and impact their livelihoods. However, in our study, we found that men’s roles in urban safety and security regulation aligned with Craig and Porters’ findings about safety and security mechanisms in urban settlements in Lae and Port Moresby. The owner and community leader of Awagasi market was instrumental in ensuring security and peace was maintained by appointing women leaders to take care of other women traders, ensuring safety for communal benefit.

According to Flood [39], men become advocates in preventing women from experiencing violence. Men promote the safety of women by respecting and promoting women’s right amongst men and the community as a whole. The market owner engages in self-advocacy for the perils of women, participates in advocacy efforts on women’s issues, supports women’s safety and advocates for women’s rights to access support in the event of facing domestic violence. Men have become involved and supported women because they witnessed and understood the impact of gender-based violence on the lives of women. But it could also be what Gibbs [40] talks about when he describes the PNG Catholic men’s programs that facilitate their reflections in supporting gender parity, that a rights-based approach couched in “human solidarity and the common good within the community” (p. 152) is beneficial for the whole family.

While it can be acknowledged that committees and leadership can be contested and are fraught with difficulties, Awagasi market’s operations have benefited from hybrid systems that continue to include women as key economic players. It could also be argued that prevention of violence by the market owner could be paternalistic and, therefore, doesn’t necessarily address the inequity faced by women. However, in this study, the participants and women vendors in particular indicated that the market owner supported the implementation of strategies that supported women in flourishing as individuals in the community.

6. Conclusions

In this article, we have attempted to contribute to a better understanding of the role of women who are initiating strategies to support market safety in informal settings. There has been a lack of recognition of women’s contributions to conflict management in market settings, as women have been viewed predominantly from the lens of passivity and vulnerability. Women vendors’ roles to achieving peace and security goals in the market space have often been silenced, muted and masked. This study used creative methodologies, focus group discussions and interviews to document a nuanced view from community members, and women market vendors in particular. We have demonstrated men’s roles in market safety, showing how they support women’s leadership roles in safety, women’s rights and women’s representation in the mediation structures. Here, working relations between men and women can be beneficial when challenging social and cultural norms, and social innovative strategies are needed to improve the safety and security of women in informal market settings.

We acknowledge that the study is limited to a particular setting, with the market owner and the community of Awagasi having established steps to support women’s safety. Studies from other markets in PNG or the Pacific might, therefore, lead to different results. However, we hope that the findings from this research can inform development strategies for urban informal markets more broadly. Understanding the gender-based and mediation practices in the context of informal markets increases our understanding of the roles women play in effectively mediating conflicts in the informal marketplace. But women vendors need further support in terms of market infrastructure, and should be part of any discussions around improving the market infrastructure. The mapping activities clearly brought out market vendors’ perspectives of the spaces and the strategies women recommend for improving market spaces.

The biggest challenges women market vendors face are related to safety and security, and more broadly the social governance aspects of Awagasi market. The research findings showed that women understand and engage in complex social and cultural processes that provide them with the ability to mediate tensions or disruptions that occur in the market. While there are unequal power dynamics that impact them, women in Awagasi market are not passive beings; rather, they have contributed significantly to ensuring safety at Awagasi market. Recognising women’s roles in spaces of social innovation and development requires applying a gender lens to research and activities taking place in urban market spaces. Doing so provides opportunities for more inclusive forms of development that can make a significant contribution to safety and security in urban market spaces.