Regulating social spaces of everyday life: The bottom-up codification of a behavioural norm in a Dutch municipal bylaw

Abstract

The utopian ideal of public space promotes it as the material manifestation of a freely accessible realm in which diverse social entities engage with one another to discuss, debate and form an inclusive society. In reality, access to and participation in public space is restricted for various factions of society. In the regulation of public space formal law plays a large, albeit not exclusive, role. Intrinsically formal law is presumed to come from above and beyond, and technically law is indeed emanated top-down by legislative authorities. The initiative to law however can originate from elsewhere. The case study presented here offers an example of law being enterprised from within, as a bottom-up strategy to claim dominance over a shared space and an attempt to block access to competing factions. Law then is wielded as a vertical power strategy between citizens, in which government has to struggle not to be reduced to an instrument in the hands of the elite. The case narrates the attempt of residents to have a municipal ban on using cannabis installed on a small inner-city playground in Amsterdam. This article aims to contribute to literature on juridification of social relations, the production of space and the making of law.