Square Inch Anthropology

There is a wide array of techniques and behaviors around public drying in China - from vegetables and meats, to clothing, to the inventory of a store specializing in calligraphy brushes placed upon a patch of sidewalk in front of the store. Noteworthy drying behaviors aren't limited to space-constrained urban densities, either - I've recently seen stone walls become lettuce drying racks, and odd-length branches in wood piles hung with recently-washed shoes. 

Consider the practices that surround drying of different sorts of objects in your context - indoors/private or outdoors/public (and whether that varies by season)? Machine, line or rack (or monkey bars)? What are the infrastructure (built-in or improvised) and customs that support or discourage particular drying behaviors - and to what those behaviors apply ? Consider the factors causing that to vary (population density, education, income, electricity access, and so on).

This vendor cooks up blocks of rice candy in his home nearby, packs them into his carry-basket, and brings them down to this mini-park near a busy bus stop to patiently perform the work of breaking the larger blocks of candy into bite-size pieces and placing them into small plastic bags. The tool he uses to break apart the candy - picture a metal shoehorn that has been bent in the middle - also serves as "acoustic advertising": the sound of his hammer upon the metal implement notifies passersby of his presence.

Possible only at certain (read: non-Monsooning) times of the year for this Yangon department/grocery store in the heart of downtown, the inventory from their various departments that does not fit in-store is kept across the street in their parking lot located beneath an overpass. The desk at the entrance both manages payments for use of the parking lot, and also handles stocking and logistics as employees cart and carry goods across the street. The added convenience of a stockroom located in the parking lot is that when a customer selects a particularly large item inside (a case of soda, a full-sized dresser, an ironing board, etc.) it is unnecessary for them to personally move it down the stairs and across the street as it is already located right next to the customer's car.

This sidewalk-based key & lock guy repurposes his space by hanging keys, doorknobs, and other trade items from the window behind him (along with his sign, claiming he fixes any and all kinds of locks and also repairs, buys, and sells safes). Consider how the space for an informal sidewalk-based business is valued, and the factors that affect that space's value. Like other, more formal businesses across the world, such space is partially judged by more widely recognized metrics such as visibility to pedestrians, amount of usable space available, and so on.