Revanchist Sanitisation or Coercive Care?: The Use of Enforcement and Conditionality to Combat Street Homelessness and Street Culture

Sarah Johnsen (Heriot-Watt University)

Abstract

This paper will examine recent responses to rough sleeping and 'problematic street culture' (e.g. begging and street drinking) in England. It will assess the extent to which the increasing use of enforcement and conditionality in interventions are indicative of a 'revanchist expulsion' of the deviant Other and/or an expression of 'coercive care' for the vulnerable Other. It will conclude that, whilst the recent developments appear, at first glance, to be symptomatic of revanchist sanitisation of public space, closer examination reveals that the situation is actually much more complex than a revanchist reading of the situation might suggest, and perhaps not as devoid of compassion