Begging questions : : Street-level economic activity and social policy failure / / ed. by Hartley Dean.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Bristol University Press Backlist eBook-Package 2013-1995
• MitwirkendeR: Adler, Michael,; Burke, Roger Hopkins,; Coles, Bob,; Craig, Gary,; Dean, Hartley,; Erskine, Angus,; Gale, Keir,; Hermer, Joe,; Jones, Jane,; Jordan, Bill,; McIntosh, Ian,; Melrose, Margaret,; Travers, Andrew,; Wardhaugh, Julia,
• HerausgeberIn: Dean, Hartley,
• Place / Publishing House: Bristol : : Policy Press, , [1999]; ©1999
• Year of Publication: 1999
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (256 p.)

Begging is widely condemned, but little understood. It is increasingly visible, yet politically controversial. Recent changes in British social security, housing and mental health provision can be seen to have exacerbated the extent of begging in the UK, and its persistence is an indictment of the failures of social policy throughout the Western world. Though begging is intimately linked to issues of street homelessness, mental health, substance abuse and social exclusion, this book specifically focuses on begging as a distinctive form of marginalised economic activity. It looks at: the significance of face-to-face contact between beggars and passers-by; the preoccupation with the classification of beggars; the stigma associated with begging and judgements required by the passer-by; the place of begging in the spectrum of informal economic activity. The book provides a comprehensive overview and will stimulate theoretical, policy and methodological debates, driving forward the research agenda. It is important reading for researchers, academics and students in social policy, social work, sociology, politics and socio-legal studies, and also for social work practitioners and, particularly, policy makers.

Table of Contents

Front Matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgements -- List of contributors -- Introduction -- Begging and the contradictions of citizenship -- Why begging offends: historical perspectives and continuities -- Begging: the global context and international comparisons -- Excluded youth and the growth of begging -- Easy pickings or hard profession? Begging as an economic activity -- Begging in time and space: ‘shadow work’ and the rural context -- The face that begs: street begging scenes and selves’ identity work -- Word from the street: the perils and pains of researching begging -- Public attitudes to begging: theory in search of data -- “I feel rotten. I do, I feel rotten”: exploring the begging encounter -- Policing compassion: ‘Diverted Giving’ on the Winchester High Street -- Tolerance or intolerance? The policing of begging in the urban context -- Index