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1 Introduction
Exploring urban tainted spaces
Paul Kirkness and Andreas Tijé-Dra
Identifying âroughâ neighbourhoods on Google Maps has become something of a sport for those keen to procrastinate. Several websites will point curious âvirtual touristsâ to some of the urban areas in which âintrepidâ Google car drivers have once dared to venture. Identifying a police stand-off or a supposed gang member pointing a gun at the street-car camera are seen as signs that a neighbourhood is a tough one and an otherwise âno-go areaâ. A prostitute and her client are identified and used as justification for an areaâs general vice and depravity. These visuals are spread across a number of websites1 with titles that explicitly mark urban areas out as dangerous, immoral and inhospitable places.
The tabloid press, in countries such as the United Kingdom, is keen to reiterate the dangers involved in venturing beyond certain urban boundaries and to identify the âworst neighbourhoodsâ in a city or a country (Kearns et al., 2013). GIS techniques are put to use in creating âcrime mapsâ that often have potent material consequences for those living within designated high-crime neighbourhoods (Ratcliffe, 2002). More often than not, the boundaries that are constructed are internalised by those living outside the urban area described as exhibiting traits that are beyond the ânormâ. A telling example of this internalisation is given by the sociologist Azouz Begag when describing a bus journey during which he ventured into a stigmatised banlieue to the north of Paris. At some point the driver pointed his finger to the street and Begag describes the scene: âhe was showing me an invisible frontier which he was drawing with his finger, one that only he seemed to be able to see, as if the entrance to a new cityâ (Begag, 2002: 266). Begag insists that the fracture between the core and its periphery has grown larger in several contexts, to the extent where it is now almost visible, and the fears and fantasies have taken shape on maps. But this in no way applies only to France, as has been demonstrated by a number of researchers in other contexts (see e.g. Arthurson, 2004; Beach and Sernhede, 2011; Cohen, 2013; Fortuijn and van Kempen, 1998; Slater and Anderson, 2012).
Of course, the study of stigma is at the heart of several studies of social psychology, but it was also highlighted as a sociological issue in the seminal work of Erving Goffman (1963). There he argued that individuals become disqualified from society because of âabominations of the bodyâ (such as physical disabilities), âblemishes of the individual characterâ (addiction or unemployment, for instance) and âthe tribal stigma of race, nation and religionâ, which can be passed down from generation to generation. It is LoĂŻc Wacquant (2007) who adds territorial stigma to this list, arguing that it too, leads to individuals being âdiscreditedâ and âdisqualifiedâ. Certainly, the examples with which we have begun the introduction to this edited book point to the existence and persistence of stigmatised places within our cities. These have significant material and structural consequences for those residing in these areas, and this has most notably been demonstrated in a number of works by Wacquant (e.g. 2007, 2008). These range from the impossibility of finding a job as a consequence of address discrimination, to the impossibility of obtaining mortgage credits, to racialisation (Kirkness, 2013; Slater and Anderson, 2012) and limits access to health services (Pearce, 2012). Fire brigades and ambulances often tread cautiously when entering such stigmatised neighbourhoods.2 There are also more mundane â but no less significant â consequences, such as the impossibility of ordering a taxi or having food delivered to oneâs home (see Slater, in press, p. 9). These may well be less significant than the hindrance that oneâs address can have in terms of obtaining employment, but they have the potential to become additional reasons to develop shame and frustration.
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The examples that we have listed provide elements that feed the fascination that stigmatised neighbourhoods exert on those who know little or nothing about them. The media, political discourse and everyday conversations may well participate in forging representations about what these neighbourhoods are like in the collective imaginary. As a result of these stigmatic images, several areas are framed as âno-go areasâ, limiting the interactions between residents and non-residents within the neighbourhood. Such ignorance makes research into neighbourhood stigma all the more vital and this book is one attempt to move forwards in this direction.
The fact that territorial stigmatisation has become recognised as, not only a serious structural problem, but also as an object of social scientific inquiry is in large part due to Wacquantâs important work on the topic. As is now well known, his research has focused on comparative research between a stigmatised housing estate in the French suburban town of La Courneuve and a heavily defamed ghetto in the city of Chicago. Both these neighbourhoods, âla citĂ© des 4000â and Chicagoâs so-called âSouth Sideâ, have achieved âthe status of national eponym for all the evils and dangers now believed to afflict the dualized cityâ (Wacquant, 2007, p. 67). As the editors of this volume on the topic of territorial stigma, we are deeply indebted to Wacquant for opening up an avenue that has allowed the authors of this book, as well as many others throughout the world, to focus on the enduring problem and the structural consequences of negative place reputations. All the chapters in this volume relate in several ways to the work that Wacquant has conducted. It is worth noting, however, that much of the ethnographic research on which Wacquantâs work is based was conducted several years ago. Much of the data on which his principal works are founded were gathered in the 1990s (see Wacquant, 1992). As such, the chapters in this book hope to constitute a development in the research on territorial stigma, as well as to update the ways in which it is endured and contested around the world.
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Wacquant has not devoted much writing to the contestations of territorial stigmatisation. This has, however, emerged in a number of recent pieces of academic inquiry, pointing to the fact that this is an important part of the process of territorial stigmatisation. These show that it is resisted, rejected, appropriated or merely ignored. Slater and Anderson (2012) found that residents of St Paulâs, in Bristol, were keen to deflect the stigmatising imagery that has been attached to the neighbourhood for decades. They found that little or none of the âcommon knowledgeâ pertaining to St Paulâs corresponded to the lived experiences of residents. In Aalborg East, a deprived neighbourhood in the north of Denmark, Jensen and Christensen (2012) found that, at worst, residents were ambivalent about the urban area and that they did not seem to internalise the negative reputations. They were fully aware of the problems that one had to negotiate as a result of being a resident of the neighbourhood, but they found several ways to cope with this and some described their sentiments of attachment to the place. Garbin and Millington (2012) returned to the neighbourhood of âles 4000â that had been the subject of Wacquantâs research in the 1990s. What they found is that contestation lived side by side with feelings of fear and the internalisation of neighbourhood stigma. Kirkness (2014) describes the mundane ways in which residents of two of NĂźmesâ so-called âsensitive urban zonesâ have learnt to cope with stigma and move beyond the consequences that it imposes on their everyday lives. And there are plenty of other examples of research pointing to the fact that submissive strategies of internalisation of stigma are not the only response to negative place reputations (see Purdy, 2003; McKenzie, 2012). This edition provides both a synopsis as well as a further step towards the synthesis of current approaches heading in this direction.
Contestation is one thing, and learning to cope with life in stigmatised neighbourhoods is another. Wacquant, Slater and Pereira (2014: p.7) develop a useful list of the ways in which stigma can be coped with, dividing these strategies between those that are somewhat submissive and those that can be perceived as recalcitrant or resistive in some sense. In the former, the authors classify such tactics as blaming oneâs neighbour for the poor reputation of the neighbourhood, or withdrawing into the private space of the home. Resistive strategies involve defending the neighbourhood and its residents but the authors also note that they might involve the hyperbolic claims of belonging to a certain space. Lisa McKenzie (2012), in her study of St Annâs, in Liverpool, noted that residents at times used the term âghettoâ to describe where they lived. When they did so, it was with a form of pride and belonging, in a sense a way to shine a positive light on the neighbourhood. She also notes the very strong feelings of âbeing and belongingâ to the area among the residents. Some of Garbin and Millingtonâs respondents argued that they had a âright to be otherâ (2012: p. 2075).
Although resistance to stigmatic representations does exist in a number of neighbourhoods around the globe, the fact that some people are capable of feeling place attachments to areas that are deemed to be threatening by anybody outside the neighbourhood is an important step towards the negation of the power of stigma.
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The importance of the fact that stigma is not experienced in the same way or constituted in similar ways across regions and neighbourhoods is given a perfect illustration in Pascale NĂ©delecâs chapter, the first of this volume. She shows that stigma is not reserved for the socially and economically deprived neighbourhoods of our cities, but that it can be activated for a host of different reasons. Her study of territorial stigmatisation in Las Vegas, otherwise known as âSin Cityâ, is an intriguing account of the way in which, even in relatively wealthy urban areas, territorial stigma can hinder place attachment. This is very unlike the ways in which some attachments are developed by residents of poorer neighbourhoods, according to a number of accounts. In such places, residents have had to make do with less, which can be seen as something that they can ultimately be proud of. Importantly, in such contexts, social networks are often very useful, thus adding feelings of attachment to community and place (see McKenzie, 2015).
Lucas Pohlâs chapter focuses on the city of Zwickau, in which the far-right terror group known as the Nationalsozialistischer Untergrund (National Socialist Underground) had taken up residence. In the final days before the group was discovered, the house where they were said to have lived was set on fire and two out of the three were found shot in a burning mobile home. The townâs reputation has become deeply intertwined with the events, creating a certain type of stigma that the city has attempted to cope with, articulating a number of tropes in order to do so. This has everything to do with image policies countering the logic of uncertain reputations.
Territorial stigma can also become intertwined with ethnic categorising. This is not unheard of in the context of the US ghetto, where separating the racialisation that afflicts African- Americans and the stigmatisation that is imposed onto ânotorious ghettosâ is all but impossible. Gaja Maestriâs chapter shows that the stigma of belonging to Roma communities, both in France and in Italy, is imposed onto the land where these communities reside. Thus, whether the Roma live in so-called illegitimate settlements, settlements that are established by municipalities, or whether they end up living in squats, Roma stigma is ultimately territorialised.
Christoph Haferburg and Marie Huchzermeyer have written about one of the unfortunate (and in some countries, illegal) actions taken by real estate promoters and developers: redlining. Their chapter focuses on the neighbourhood of Brixton, in Johannesburg, South Africa, in which redlining was pursued as a result of territorial stigmatisation. As the authors explain, Brixton suffered from stigma for so long that loans and insurance were denied to those residing there. When these were not denied, the cost of borrowing was otherwise selectively raised as a result of the areaâs reputation. The authors focus on the ways in which some residents have been able to contest the practice of redlining through collective action.
The first four chapters of this book thus look at the symbolic and material practices of coping with stigma. In the second main section of the book, we look at the demonstrations of place attachment that prevail in the face of âcommon senseâ understandings. One of these, which is often put forward by urban policymakers, is that residents would be better off were they to live elsewhere and away from stigmatised neighbourhoods. The two chapters by Lee Crookes and Hamish Kallin offer accounts of urban renewal programmes that have had the result of reproducing territorial stigmatisation with the somewhat complicit participation of the urban real estate market. They thus focus their attention on the links between state-led (or state-sanctioned) gentrification and territorial stigmatisation. Crookes focuses on the extensive housing clearance programme in northern England, known as Housing Market Renewal (HMR) and Kallin has conducted extensive qualitative research in Craigmillar, in Edinburgh. In his chapter, he coins the fascinating concept of the âreputational gapâ, thus furthering Neil Smithâs famous work on the ârent gapâ (Smith, 1987).
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In the seventh chapter, we show that there is at times a strong sense of belonging in stigmatised neighbourhoods in France and that these are ignored by paternalistic urban policies. When it is articulated within the lyrics of a rapper, place attachment to a stigmatised neighbourhood is considered to be an artistâs own personal experience, and one that clashes with the descriptions of dilapidation and concrete jungles that can be found in broader discourses. We have examined rap music from artists that reside in Marseille and the purpose of the chapter has been to confront their vivid descriptions of belonging â both to the neighbourhood and the community residing there â to ethnographic fieldwork conducted in housing estates, with âordinaryâ residents in the town of NĂźmes.
Our point is to highlight the everyday appropriations of territorialised space and to confront these to recent policy making decisions that are being taken in the French context, much of which have tended to promote the demolition of social housing neighbourhoods. In China, place attachments are also ignored when confronted with the high-speed megaprojects that cities and state provinces establish. Yunpeng Zhang explores these in the context of Shanghaiâs Great Expo in the Chapter 8. The âdomicidesâ that have been occurring as a result of Shanghaiâs Expo concerned housing that has been discredited by mainstream discourses, which has further legitimised the eradication of entire neighbourhoods. Sometimes for a number of generations, these homes had been made and remade, and their residents had become used to imagining the future of these structure...
