The political chaff from the economic grain? Rhetorical accounts of the embeddedness of begging

Abstract

The idea that economic activities may be described and studied as 'embedded' in social relations has been central to much debate in recent economic sociology. The present paper analyses legal struggles over the status of begging in US law and argues that conflicting rhetorical accounts of begging illustrate social actors' efforts to articulate the interconnectedness of their social world, including the ways in which economic practices are embedded in their social and institutional contexts. The paper thus suggests that embeddedness is not just something identified by social researchers, but also a problem faced by social actors as they try to understand the socio-economic order in which they live and act. By arguing for or against the claim that begging is simultaneously an economic action and the exercise of the right to freedom of expression, the voices in this debate attempted to affect the future of this marginal economic activity.

Beggar Bosses on the Streets of Dhaka

“…Contemporary and geographically diverse literature consistently notes how begging is often perceived as an opaque activity, in part distrusted by the public (Devlieger 2018, 461), and often finding criminalising responses in public policy intent on discipline and control (Bromley 1981, 24;Dean 1999, 219). More nuanced yet nevertheless contrasting characterisations can be found in the debates surrounding legal cases involving beggars in the USA, where begging is portrayed as either disruptive of the urban social order or a right to be protected (Cockburn 2013).…”