Datum zveřejnění:

15.2.2014

Abstrakt:

The goal of the present study is to understand the discoursive negotiation of the claims upon the use of public space. Specifically it is focused on the analysis of purification of public space from homeless persons in middle-sized city. On the basis of my research of homeless persons that included the semi-structured interviews with selected actors (policemen, politicians, employees of social services and of the non-profit organizations), analysis of documents (especially journalistic and legal) and active participant observation I will describe, (a) problematic behavior of homeless persons (for example sleeping on benches, consummation of alcohol) from the point of view of policemen, politicians, employees of social services, employees of non-governmental organizations and media, (b) preventive arrangements against this behavior (for example esthetization of the space, monitoring) and “reactional resolving” of perceived problems (for example driving them out of the public space by the city police, liquidation of their shelters). Theoretically the study is embedded in the concepts of transgression of T. Cresswell and purification of D. Sibley, who further developed the approach of M. Douglas towards the “impure” as the result of categorization and establishing of social order and relate this “contamination” to public space. Besides I will also make use of theories that that consider the purification of space to be the result of commercial use of public space. The study reaches the conclusion that in the name of urban security and elimination of transgressions (necessary in the case of homeless people) the abovementioned actors refuse the homeless the right to the use of public space and de facto pushes them into anachorism, that is, entity on inappropriate place.

Klíčová slova

homelessness; transgression; purification; public space; MAXQDA; anachorism

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