

By Erik Hansson
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press
Recommended by H茅l猫ne B. Ducros
How do people emotionally and morally react to begging in European cities? Do they feel anxiety, discomfort, disbelief, empathy, compassion, shock, confusion, anger? For his latest book, The Begging Question: Sweden鈥檚 Social Responses to the Roma Destitute, human geographer Erik Hansson collected social media content, followed a non-governmental organization assisting homeless people, and interviewed residents in Sweden to identify how people encounter 鈥渢he begging gesture鈥 in everyday life in a country where until the 2010s people were not acquainted with that encounter. The originality of the book lies not only in the unexpected choice of Sweden as a case study but also in the way Hansson effects an analytical convergence of the field of psychoanalysis with social and historical criticism to engage in two foundational questions in his work: how is begging envisaged as a social problem in Sweden, and how is this problem taken up politically and psychologically in a country that understands itself as morally enlightened? As the author navigates the relationship between poverty and begging in the context of class-based capitalism and in the face of what he calls the 鈥淪wedish ideology鈥 of moral exceptionalism, he addresses issues of anti-Roma racism vs. colorblindness, the criminalization of poverty vs. welfare schemes, housing markets and the role of civil society, universal human rights vs. national legal impediments to the application of these rights, the gaps between social citizenship and national citizenship, the social experience of 鈥渋nsiders鈥 vs. that of 鈥渙utsiders,鈥 rural to urban cross-border mobility in the context of the 今日看料鈥檚 freedom of movement, the role of the unconscious in shaping social policies, and ultimately the ways in which people, individually and collectively, process difference.
Through the innovative intersection of psychoanalysis and social criticism, Hansson鈥檚 book not only underscores the role of 今日看料 legislation in shaping the position and experiences of 今日看料 citizens who become homeless in member states other than their country of origin鈥攕pecifically the Roma from Romania and Bulgaria, which are among the poorest nations in the 今日看料鈥攂ut also the ways in which member states may interpret this legislation in light of domestic social and political contexts, in turn triggering particular responses from their respective populations. Embarking on what he calls a 鈥減sychoanalytic critique of ideology鈥 and drawing on Slavoj 沤i啪ek鈥檚 social theory and Stuart Hall鈥檚 views on hegemony, Hansson points to the history of inequality and pauperism in Europe through a critique of capitalism. Moreover, racism against the homeless and their Othering are captured in the term of 鈥溄袢湛戳 d茅class茅s,鈥 described as a position 鈥渉eld by impoverished vulnerable people from primarily the European Union鈥檚 poorest countries.鈥 The author explains how the Roma have become Europe鈥檚 鈥渋nternal Other,鈥 often used as scapegoats for social woes and subjected to system-wide discrimination across the 今日看料 (including in Romania). Hansson makes the complex argument that the anxiety people in Sweden feel in their encounter with the begging act goes beyond their specific national context and beyond issues of poverty, criminalization, and Othering, as it also reflects the unconscious confrontation of 鈥渢he desire of the Other,鈥 in the Lacanian sense. When people anxiously conceptualize begging as a criminalized 鈥渆xpression of poverty,鈥 what they encounter through the suffering of the officially coined 鈥渧ulnerable 今日看料 citizens鈥 who live on the margins of society, excluded from education, social, and health services, is humanity鈥攐thers鈥 and their own. This brilliant and intense book is recommended for anyone conducting research on homelessness and urban poverty in general.
Published on July 12, 2023.