Abstract
AbstractThe paper focuses on the discursive framing of drug users and sex workers as subjects of public space governance within the process of local policymaking. The core of this study analyses the non-governmental organisation OZ Odyseus grant application for a harm reduction programme and a subsequent debate of the Municipal Council Members of the Bratislava city district – Nové Mesto. The aim of the meeting and the debate was to approve funding for numerous social projects, including a fieldwork-oriented organisation OZ Odyseus, which provides harm reduction in numerous city districts of Bratislava. The analysis disclosed the application of specific subject positioning frames, which conceptualise drug users and sex workers as ‘out of place’, anti-social and not members of a local community. Results of the study point to the conceptualisation of (commercial) public space as ‘stolen from the normal people’ and the need for spatial segregation of sex workers and drug users in order to reclaim and revitalise it.
Highlights
In their study on sex work and public space, Hallgrimsdottir et al (2008) write on the topic of public stigma, which the authors perceive as a powerful social label that has profound consequences for those individuals to whom they are applied
In consideration of the authors’ understanding of stigmatisation, this study aims to analyse the discursive positioning of drug users and street-based sex workers2 as the proponents of anti-social behaviour within the urban context of the capital city of Slovakia – Bratislava
We look upon the perception of anti-social behaviour as a specific form of political discourse (Coleman, 2005; Carr & Cowan, 2006), which labels distinct groups of the population as a form of public nuisance, and this needs to be confronted
Summary
In their study on sex work and public space, Hallgrimsdottir et al (2008) write on the topic of public stigma, which the authors perceive as a powerful social label that has profound consequences for those individuals to whom they are applied. We look upon the perception of anti-social behaviour as a specific form of political discourse (Coleman, 2005; Carr & Cowan, 2006), which labels distinct groups of the population (i.e., sex workers and drug users) as a form of public nuisance, and this needs to be confronted. The contemporary body of literature on the topic of anti-social behaviour in urban spaces perceives it as a social construct (Carr & Cowan, 2006) and a form of political discourse (Coleman, 2005), which needs to be constantly discursively (re)defined. We look upon the discourse framing of sex workers and drug users as ‘out of place’ or as
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