Paper short abstract:

This paper examines the phenomenon of begging as an economic and symbolic practice from an urban spatial perspective. As illustration of the complexity and contestation of urban everyday life, I will discuss what effect the appearance of a beggar in a city location has.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines the super-diverse urban context as expressed in terms of informal economic practices, in particular the practice of begging. I would like to discuss the phenomenon of begging as an economic and symbolic practice from an urban spatial perspective.

A person who begs reorganises the space through his or her physical appearance (posture, movement, gestures, language) and imbues the place with new symbolic meaning. As he or she appropriates the space, he or she forces the passers-by to interpret this space in its new significance. How does the begging person reorganise urban space? What effect does the appearance of a beggar in a city location have? This perspective helps to examine the other forces that shape places and which oppose the presence of beggars, filling the same spaces with competing symbolic meanings. Beggars are often expelled from certain locations. What contradictions and conflicts arise from the arrival of a symbolic figure such as the beggar? In other words, which social, political and economic meanings from a spatial perspective are called into question by the symbolic figure of the begging person? The anthropological observation of the spatial organisation of begging in the city makes it possible to illustrate the complexity and contestation of urban everyday life, which are part of super-diversity.

My analysis of these questions is based on ethnographic fieldwork in St. Petersburg in 1998-1999. This focused on various types of beggars and a range of different settings on the main street Nevski Prospekt, i.e. public space, as well as in a sacral space, an orthodox church on this street.