Where There's Smoke There's Fire: Outdoor Smoking Bans and Claims to Public Space

Abstract

The Canadian city of Vancouver was very early to introduce extensive smokefree legislation. Smoking has been banned in all indoor locations for well over a decade and tobacco control advocates have also recently begun to push for the expansion of such legislation into outdoor spaces in the city. Drawing on a 6-month period of observation of smokers and “not-smokers” on their lunch breaks at office sites in downtown Vancouver, I examine the ways that smokers engage with outdoor public space. I show that while smokers continue to make material claims to such space, these claims have become increasingly tenuous. I argue that tobacco “denormalization” strategies provide essential context for understanding outdoor smoking bans and raise ethical questions about the form of de-facto prohibition they appear to encourage.

The City as a Metaphor for Order: The Prohibition on the Sale of Alcoholic Beverages at Night as a Means of Purifying Public Space

“…Isključenje pripadnika nižih klasa iz javnog prostora ujedno omogućava kreiranje ovog prostora tako da reflektuje vrednosti koje zagovaraju pripadnici više i srednje klase, kao što su samokontrola, samodisciplina, umerenost, civilizovanost, pristojnost, red, čime se potpomaže njihova dominacija u društvu (Jayne, Holloway, and Valentine 2006;Jayne, Valentine, and Holloway 2008). Osim toga, isključenje pripadnika nižih klasa iz javnog prostora tim pojedincima uskraćuje pravo da učestvuju u javnom životu zajednice, lišavajući ih na taj način identiteta građanina koji se definiše na osnovu učestvovanja u javnom prostoru (v. Bell 2013;Dennis 2013Dennis , 2014Fischer and Poland 1998;Thompson, Pearce, and Barnett 2007).…”

Explicating the Air: The new Smokefree (and beyond)

“…It's a contagious disease, spread by selfish idiots like you’. Bell (: 111) also gives examples of the strong response to very fleeting exposure to smoke, documenting the grimacing, pulling up of collars over the mouth and nose, animated coughing, and the waving away of the air in front of faces, that she saw many passersby practicing as she observed smokers in the outdoors in downtown Vancouver.…”

“…The NTS position is very clear, despite the equivocal tone that the analysts cited above take: the NTS position is that smoke is dangerous. While the possibility of harm might provide good reasons to legislate, it does seem that present legislative frames act on the political, and not necessarily the harmful, aspects of smoke in the outdoors air, a point also underscored not only by the fact that other kinds of anthropogenic and natural pollutants are also present in the air, and are possibly dangerous, but that they are not foregrounded and dealt with anything like the same political vigour (see Bell : 114). Equally, this point is underscored by the kinds of claims the NTS makes for its legislation.…”

Cosmopolis: public spaces, cosmopolitanism, and democracy

“…Thus, it can be stated that public spaces are places where “disorganized” civil society also expresses itself in a contestation manner, thus being transformed into legitimate spaces of dissidence (Roberts, 2008 ). For various authors, therefore, public spaces are places where small divergences and agreements, carried out between individuals and groups in daily life, according to the rites of face-to-face interaction, or public sociability, gain visibility and are transformed into political/public “debates” (Bell, 2013 ; Dehaene & De Cauter, 2008 ; Jayne et al, 2006 ; Kallianos & Fumanti, 2021 ; Kärrholm & Wirdelöv, 2019 ; Schaller & Modan, 2005 ; Torronen & Karlsson, 2005 ).…”