Panhandling (also called begging and mendicancy) has been a problem for lawmakers. Although current crime control measures (based on the broken windows theory) have identified a perceived link between disorders (i.e., panhandling) and crime, previous attempts to ban panhandling were deemed unconstitutional. The purpose of this work was to investigate the impact of the latest attempt to curb panhandling in Hampton Roads, Virginia, known as the Public Education Campaign. This phenomenological inquiry examined the perceptions and work-related experiences of service delivery agents to explore the impact of the panhandling policy on panhandling and policy enforcement. Purposive sampling was used to recruit, interview, and record 7 service delivery agents (social workers and law enforcement officers). After the interviews were transcribed, member-checking and triangulation were used to contribute to the trustworthiness of this project. Results indicated ineffective communication and duplication of services were issues. Therefore, positive social change may result from an improved screening process for the Department of Social Services personnel. Furthermore, educating the public concerning the legality of panhandling may eliminate the duplication of services for the Housing Crisis Hotline personnel.

This thesis explores the experiences of an urban population who are considered to exist at the social margins of society, but who paradoxically spend much of their time in urban public space. Often referred to as ‘street people,’ the issues they face, such as homelessness and drug addiction, become public issues. In this thesis, I introduce and develop the concept of the marginal public to refer to this population, exploring their experience of the city not through the lens of their marginalization but through their relationship to the spatial and social realms of urban life. I explore the ways in which the marginal public, through their visibility and presence in the city, are not marginal to urban life but deeply embedded in it. Their marginality is lived simultaneously yet in contestation with dominant ways of being. This manifests in the marginal public’s relationship to others in the city, as well as through debates about the placing of facilities that serve them which I explore through the unsanctioned supervised consumption site of Overdose Prevention Ottawa (OPO). Finally, through the concept of heterotopia, I explore the margins as places of otherness as well as possibility.

Ce mémoire porte sur la mendicité sur les trottoirs de la rue Sainte-Catherine à Montréal en 2019-2020. À travers cette recherche ethnographique, j’ai voulu comprendre comment les personnes mendiantes sont incitées à adopter des comportements désirés et attendus aux yeux des citoyens. Pour répondre à cette question, j’ai voulu, tout d’abord, démêler les termes « itinérance » et « mendicité » en montrant que la dernière consiste en une activité qui est pratiquée aussi par des personnes en situation de logement précaire ou à risque d’itinérance. Considérant la mendicité comme une pratique active plutôt que passive, j’ai voulu me départir de la conception unilatérale qui transforme la personne mendiante en récipient pour la charité. Je me suis penché sur les formes de régulation qui encadrent cette activité dans l’espace public en tenant compte des transformations historiques, sociales et légales du trottoir et de la mendicité depuis la fin 19e et début 20e siècle, notamment dans le contexte nord-américain. En mobilisant le cadre théorique sur la gouvernementalité et la citoyenneté, j’ai voulu comprendre comment les personnes mendiantes maintiennent une conduite des conduites véhiculée par les citoyens ordinaires. Pour ce faire, j’ai analysé six types de rapports que les personnes mendiantes entretiennent au quotidien alors qu’elles pratiquent leur activité : rapports aux passants/piétons, aux mendiants et autres personnes marginalisées, aux commerçants adjacents aux lieux de mendicité, aux patrouilleurs à pied, aux espaces, à l’environnement et aux lieux ainsi que le rapport à soi et son identité. Les données d’analyse sont basées sur l’observation participante et la prise de note en vrac (jotting notes). J’ai également utilisé la photographie pour capter certains paysages sociaux urbains et complémenter l’analyse sur les rapports à l’espace, l’environnement et les lieux. De cette analyse descriptive, je tends à démontrer qu’il existe de multiples modes de production de la gouvernementalité sur le trottoir. Premièrement, les patrouilleurs à pied, acteurs sociaux institutionnalisés, véhiculent le contrôle formel et étatique. Ils maintiennent l’ordre public et régulent l’activité de mendicité notamment par la production d’une tolérance sous contrainte ou conditionnelle à l’adoption de comportements désirés et ordonnés. Ils utilisent aussi des tactiques de positionnement et de circulation des corps afin d’éviter les éléments indésirables telles que les obstructions. Deuxièmement, le contrôle entre les piétons et les mendiants se fait par la production de la déférence à l’égard des piétons, ces derniers véhiculant un mode de conduite désiré et ordonné et utilisant le trottoir dans ses fonctions dominantes. Troisièmement, il existe une forme de délégation du pouvoir au sein des personnes mendiantes, permettant ainsi de maintenir l’ordre informel en l’absence du contrôle formel. L’analyse démontre la présence d’un contrôle de soi et d’un travail identitaire chez les personnes mendiantes, ces derniers cherchant à ne pas déranger ni ébranler l’ordre sur le trottoir. Un contrôle informel s’observe également pour l’appropriation du lieu de mendicité, allant d’un contrôle violent envers l’autre à un contrôle de soi permettant la négociation et la délimitation de l’espace. Enfin, je tends à démontrer que la gouvernementalité opère au plan de l’espace et qu’elle participe à rendre opportun certains comportements plutôt que d’autres jugés indésirables. L’analyse des espaces marginaux et primaires témoigne d’un rapport social, géographique et spatial inégalitaire entre les citoyens ordinaires et les personnes mendiantes/itinérantes. En conclusion, je veux démontrer que les personnes mendiantes tentent de légitimer leur présence aux yeux des citoyens ordinaires en pratiquant ce que je nomme la mendicité ordonnée ou ordinaire. / This master thesis focuses on panhandling on the sidewalks of Sainte-Catherine Street in Montreal in 2019-2020. Through this ethnographic research, I wanted to understand how panhandlers are encouraged to adopt desired and expected behaviors in the eyes of citizens. To answer this question, I first wanted to disentangle the terms “homelessness” and “panhandling” by showing that the latter consists of an activity which is also practiced by people in a situation of precarious housing or at risk of homelessness. Conceiving panhandling as an active rather than a passive practice, I wanted to get away from the one-sided concept that turns the panhandler into a recipient for charity. I looked at the forms of regulation that govern this activity in public space, taking into account the historical, social and legal transformations of sidewalks and panhandling since the late 19th and early 20th century, particularly in the North American context. By mobilizing the theoretical framework on governmentality and citizenship, I wanted to understand how panhandlers maintain a behavior pattern conveyed by ordinary citizens. To do this, I analyzed six types of relationships that panhandlers maintain on a daily basis while they practice their activity: relationships with passers-by / pedestrians, panhandlers and other marginalized people, with shopkeepers adjacent to panhandling places, with foot patrols officers, spaces, environment and places as well as the relationship to oneself and one's identity. Analytical data is based on participant observation and jotting notes. I have also used photography to capture urban social landscapes and complement the analysis of relationships to space, environment and places. From this descriptive analysis, I tend to demonstrate that there are multiple modes of producing governmentality on the sidewalk. First, the foot patrol officers, institutionalized social actors, convey formal and state control. They maintain public order and regulate the panhandling activity, in particular through the production of tolerance under constraint or conditional on the adoption of desired and orderly behaviors. They also use body positioning and movement tactics to avoid undesirable elements such as obstructions. Second, the control between pedestrians and panhandlers is achieved through the production of deference to pedestrians, the latter conveying a desired and orderly mode of driving and using the sidewalk in its dominant functions. Third, there is a form of delegation of power among panhandlers, thus making it possible to maintain informal order in absence of formal control. The analysis shows the presence of self-control and identity work among panhandlers, the latter aimed at not disturbing the order on the sidewalk. There is also informal control over the appropriation of the place of panhandling, ranging from violent control over others to self-control allowing negotiation and delineation of space. Finally, I tend to demonstrate that governmentality operates at the spatial level and that it helps to make certain behaviors appropriate rather than others, deemed undesirable. The analysis of marginal and prime spaces informs us about an unequal social, geographical and spatial relationship between ordinary citizens and panhandlers/homeless people. In conclusion, I want to demonstrate that panhandlers try to legitimize their presence in the eyes of ordinary citizens by practicing what I call ordered or ordinary panhandling.