SOSC 1375 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Disorderly House, Begging, Poor Relief
11 Apr 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Legal geography: policing poverty through the regulation of public space. Marcus aurelius: poverty is the mother of crime . Old prejudicel the poor are a dangerous lot who will stoop to criminality if given the opportunity. Anatole france: the law, in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread . Liberal notion of justice: we must all be treated equally before the law. Distinction between the formal side of the law (how the law reads) and it"s actual impact/purpose. Laws regulating the use of space signify function of space + citizenship. Benches are meant to be sitting on. Wrong to say we don"t want homeless people on the street done in different ways like redesigning the benches to inexplicitly banning homeless people. History of vagrancy law tells us volumes about the changing conception of urban citizenship essentially who actually belongs.
