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When we are going to talk about the streets, we cannot start without mentioning the real owners of streets. Who are the real owners of streets? While speaking about the street economy, during the presentation in the International Romani Symposium in Mersin, Dr Osman Sirkeci said that Romani are the real owners of streets. Romanis, who immigrated from India to all around the world a thousand years ago and were forced or abandoned to live in streets, are the real owners of streets. They were forced to earn their life in the jobs which are the most difficult and reprehensible in the known sites. However, they were assigned to make in such works as pin, spear, sword, groom, cart, wheel, iron, steel, which were used in wars; they were tinsmith, blacksmith, coppersmith, handworkers, entertainers and musicians.

Corona has been used as a mask for the deepening crisis of the capitalist system. It deepened the damage of those who suffered the most from the system. It deepened the harm of precarious street workers even more, making living conditions difficult. Not enough resources were allocated to street workers, only pocket money and food packages. At the same time, the Corona crisis strengthened the streets, making the street more visible. Street workers prevented inflation by providing goods and food at low prices in poor neighbourhoods throughout the stay period. Many products with scarcity supplied by street workers. Millions of unemployed people became entrepreneurs in the form of new simple street jobs. Increasing number of street entrepreneurs attracted local governments. Local governments developed projects to regulate the sales by street vendors. Very small-scale street entrepreneurs also developed a sense of solidarity by establishing cooperatives among themselves. The surveys showed that the poor were in solidarity with street vendors. Even street vendors bought products directly from producers who could not sell their products, distributed for free in poor neighbourhoods or sold at half the price of markets. Street economy is the most important component of the social economy. It was once again understood that the streets are not a problem but, the system created the problem. Street economy is not a problem. It is a spontaneous solution to the problems and crises of capitalism.

Although the concept of ‘social capital’ is not a new concept, its rise coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic. This concept of sociology, left in a controversial and secondary position, was reborn both in the social, political and economic fields and in the scientific world, with the increase of the COVID-19 outbreak cases. Social capital is a form of socialisation and a way of performing social relationships. The COVID-19 outbreak led to the understanding that physical capital and human capital would not be sufficient to sustain social life, and, therefore, social capital started to rise. The expected private earning from social capital is not individual profit, but collective welfare and mutual benefit. In short, social capital is the capital spent on society and is for common good. On the other hand, social capital has a volume in proportion to the density of the capitals in the society. Social capital, with its intensity, has attracted the attention of different disciplines on Corona days and has exceeded the limits of sociology. Another issue to be emphasised in this study is the relationship between social capital and democracy. In societies where tutelary democracy is dominant, civil society cannot become functional enough. In this difficult environment, social capital is shaped as paternal (tutelary) and a healthy social network cannot be functionalised in society. On the one hand, the horrors of the pandemic are experienced, and, on the other hand, a social capital model that is ineffective in healing social wounds emerges.

Street economy is the presentation of commercial, artistic goods, and services in streets, sidewalks, squares, public spaces, and other open spaces, without being bound to a fixed place, by standing or walking. Although there are not many written studies on the street economy and the issue has started to come to the agenda yet, it has made it difficult to provide sources in this field. One of the examples of a micro entrepreneurship in which we encounter in everyday life often comes from street vendors. As micro entrepreneurs, their having having social rights and security is an important issue both for Turkey and also the world. In this context, the purpose of the study is to determine the level of behaviour and attitudes of the citizens living in Amasya and Bursa provinces against – the street economy – the workforce space where society witnesses one-on-one. Research within itself includes the examination of written documents, observation, and interview methods. The information obtained was evaluated based on the questionnaire. Document scanning, survey study and data collection, interviews with street vendors, and citizens living in the provinces were conducted in Turkish and English between 2016 and 2020. The study included 79 people in total, 59.5% from Amasya and 40.5% from Bursa. The obtained data as a result of the research were evaluated through the SPSS statistical program, the findings obtained were interpreted through tables, the results of the two provinces were compared, and various suggestions were made.

In the early period of human history, when neither classical slavery nor wage slavery existed, all individuals forming a community, nuclear or extended family, contributed according to their abilities and powers to the satisfaction of the vital needs of the group. The male workers are the first group of people who work for wages, the second are the female workers who are employed less than the male workers and the third is the group of child workers who are the cheapest of all. Child labour in the street economy is the smallest unit of society which has been used for centuries to meet the vital needs of the family. This use of child labour takes the form of unpaid domestic labour in micro-enterprises such as agriculture, business administration and handicrafts, which can be seen as an example of a closed economy. The work of a girl helping her mother with the housework, the work of a boy helping his father in the vineyard and gardening and the work of a child helping the family in the grocery shop or working for a carpenter are valued in this framework. In addition, to earn direct additional financial income, apprenticeship for pay, work in a workshop, helping with daily house cleaning and child labour in the form of a daily wage are defined as child labour. In addition, to earn their own pocket money, contribute to the family budget or meet school expenses, peddling, shining shoes and selling the family's vineyard and garden produce on the street and in squares in their own name and for their own account are classified as child labour in the street economy. This study is a literature review on child labour in the street economy with national and global examples.