Revanchist Sanitisation or Coercive Care? The Use of Enforcement to Combat Begging, Street Drinking and Rough Sleeping in England

Abstract

This paper examines recent responses to 'problematic street culture' in England, where increasing pressure has been exerted to prevent people from begging and street drinking in public spaces, with rough sleeping also targeted in some areas. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with enforcement agents, support providers and targeted individuals, it assesses the extent to which the strategies employed are indicative of a 'revanchist expulsion' of the deviant Other and/or an expression of 'coercive care' for the vulnerable Other. It concludes that, whilst the recent developments appear, at first glance, to be symptomatic of revanchist sanitisation of public space, closer examination reveals that the situation is actually much more complex than a revanchist reading of the situation might suggest, and perhaps not as devoid of compassion. emanates from the US and was inspired by the well-publicised crackdown on street homeless people in the 1990s, especially in

A vengeful education? urban revanchism, sex work and the penal politics of john schools

“…This clearly played a part but it was one of several concerns, including the place of street sex work nearby and in a residential area and the victimisation of sex workers in prostitution. Second and echoing the findings of other studies (Johnsen and Fitzpatrick, 2010;Aalbers, 2011;Uitermark and Duyvendak, 2008), the case study shows that the middle and upper classes were neither the most vocal nor were they the intended primary beneficiaries of revanchist actions as Smith suggests. what Uitermark andDuyvendak (2008, p. 1485) term, its "purest form".…”

“…Nevertheless, a number of recent studies have questioned the merit and influence of these radical and somewhat dystopian accounts of homelessness (see Cloke et al, 2010;DeVerteuil et al, 2009;DeVerteuil, 2006DeVerteuil, , 2014Murphy, 2009;Thörn, 2011;Johnsen and Fitzpatrick, 2010). Such critiques are useful to 11 consider here because they point to perceived flaws in the revanchist city thesis.…”

“…Smith (1998, p. 8) 'softer' than in (parts of) the United States is echoed elsewhere (Aalbers, 2011;Thörn, 2011). Using case studies of gentrification in the Bijlmer district of Amsterdam (Aalbers, 2011), 'anti-segregation' policies in Rotterdam (Uitermark and Duyvendak, 2008) and policies towards begging, rough sleeping and street drinking in England (Johnsen and Fitzpatrick, 2010), others have argued that urban revanchism is not always solely orientated towards the desires and fears of the middle and upperclasses but can receive support from, and possibly even benefit, the working classes.…”

“…An increasingly common-place argument in the literature is that revanchist policies run alongside and are often dependent on a number of 'softer' strategies of exclusion, containment, help and support for marginalised groups (see Aalbers, 2011;Cloke et al, 2010;DeVerteuil, 2014;DeVerteuil et al, 2009;Johnsen and Fitzpatrick, 2010;Thörn, 2011 portray a "surge in punitiveness" in contemporary society (p. 175), the concept of punitiveness is rarely defined. If we take this term to mean some form of excess, disproportionality and retribution in punishment, he argues, "many commentators on social control tend to play down the 'non-punitive' developments within penal 13 policy" (p. 180) and when they do, they tend to misrepresent it as a bifurcated 'twintrack' penal justice system.…”

Controlling Homeless People? Power, Interventionism and Legitimacy

“…One can envisage circumstances where all of these sub-criteria are met, and indeed there are documented instances where the use of ASBOs/CBOs has 'saved lives' where they have terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047279417000289 been targeted on entrenched rough sleepers for whom all other attempts to assist them via softer interventions, combined with intensive and tailored support, had comprehensively failed (Johnsen and Fitzpatrick, 2010;Johnsen et al, 2016). Equally, however, it is clear that in a number of English cities ASBOs have been deployed without first pursuing more supportive interventions .…”