Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

“This is My Community”: Reproducing and Resisting Boundaries of Exclusion in Contested Public Spaces

  • Original Article
  • Published:
American Journal of Community Psychology

Abstract

The way that public space is structured has significant implications for identity, social interaction, and participation in society. For those experiencing homelessness, with no or limited private space, survival hinges on the accessibility and livability of public space. However, the increasing privatization of public space in the United States has contributed to the implementation of anti-homeless ordinances in cities, restricting sitting, standing, panhandling, and sleeping in public. This study analyzes data from interviews with housed and unhoused community members, text from a local policy document, and ethnographic observations to explore how boundaries between “insiders” and “outsiders” are drawn in public space and mediated through individual discourse. Our findings suggest that boundaries of exclusion are constructed through dominant narratives that portray the unhoused as a threat to safety and economic vitality, thus justifying the need for regulation and punishment through the criminalization of homelessness. Yet, informants also demonstrate resistance to this narrative by discussing how criminalization of homelessness perpetuates dehumanization, violence, and economic inequality. Policy implications for the regulation of public space are discussed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ammann, J. J. (2000). Addressing quality of life crimes in our cities: Criminalization, community courts and community compassion. St. Louis University Law Journal, 44(3), 811–820.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amster, R. (2003). Patterns of exclusion: Sanitizing space, criminalizing homelessness. Social Justice, 30(1), 195–221.

    Google Scholar 

  • Applied Survey Research. (2013). 2013 Santa Cruz County homeless point-in-time census & survey: Comprehensive report. Retrieved from http://static1.squarespace.com/static/5176dcd7e4b0e5c0dba41ee0/t/53ee6197e4b08be4e39a873b/1408131479031/Santa+Cruz+Comprehensive+Report+-+2013.pdf.

  • Autor, D. (2011). The polarization of job opportunities in the U.S. labor market: Implications for employment and earnings. Community Investments, 23(2), 11–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bakhtin, M. M. (1981). The dialogic imagination (C. Emerson & M. Holquist, Trans.). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

  • Banerjee, T. (2001). The future of public space: Beyond invented streets and reinvented places. Journal of the American Planning Association, 67(1), 9–24.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnes, R. K. (2000). Losing ground: Locational formulations in argumentation over new travellers. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Plymouth University; Plymouth, UK.

  • Barnes, R., Auburn, T., & Lea, S. (2004). Citizenship in practice. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43(2), 187–206.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bruner, J. S. (1990). Acts of meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, H. E. (2008). Justifying inequality: A social psychological analysis of beliefs about poverty and the poor. In A. C. Lin & D. R. Harris (Eds.), The colors of poverty: Why racial and ethnic disparities persist (pp. 52–76). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bullock, H. E. (2014). Social barriers to poverty reduction. In United Nations Development Programme, Barriers to and opportunities for poverty reduction: Prospects for private sector-led interventions (pp. 135–160). Retrieved from http://www.undp.org/content/dam/istanbul/docs/2014_Barriers_to_and_Prospects_for_Poverty_Reduction.pdf.

  • Bullock, H. E., & Reppond, H. A. (in press). Of “takers” and “makers:” A social psychological analysis of class and classism. In P.L. Hammack (Ed.), Oxford handbook of social psychology and social justice. New York: Oxford University Press.

  • Case, A. D., & Hunter, C. D. (2014). Counterspaces and the narrative identity work of offender-labeled African American youth. Journal of Community Psychology, 42(8), 907–923.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Case, A. D., Todd, N. R., & Kral, M. J. (2014). Ethnography in community psychology: Promises and tensions. American Journal of Community Psychology, 54(1–2), 60–71.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • City of Santa Cruz. (2013, December 3). City Council agenda: Study session. Retrieved from http://scsire.cityofsantacruz.com/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=538&doctype=AGENDA.

  • Code Publishing Company. (2014). Santa Cruz Municipal Code. Retrieved from http://www.codepublishing.com/ca/santacruz/.

  • Denzin, N. (1978). The research act: A theoretical introduction to sociological methods. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Di Masso, A. (2012). Grounding citizenship: Toward a political psychology of public space. Political Psychology, 33(1), 123–143.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, J., & Durrheim, K. (2000). Displacing place-identity: A discursive approach to locating self and other. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39(1), 27–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, J., & Durrheim, K. (2004). Dislocating identity: Desegregation and the transformation of place. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24(4), 455–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dixon, J., Levine, M., & McAuley, R. (2006). Locating impropriety: Street drinking, moral order, and the ideological dilemma of public space. Political Psychology, 27(2), 187–206.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ferrell, J. (1997). Youth, crime, and cultural space. Social Justice, 24(4), 21–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gaetz, S. (2004). Safe streets for whom? Homeless youth, social exclusion, and criminal victimization. Canadian Journal of Criminology and Criminal Justice, 46(4), 423–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gendron, R., & Domhoff, G. W. (2009). The leftmost city: Power and progressive politics in Santa Cruz. Boulder, CO: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gergen, K. J. (1985). The social constructionist movement in modern psychology. American Psychologist, 40(3), 266–275.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L. (2006). Identity, conflict, and coexistence: Life stories of Israeli and Palestinian adolescents. Journal of Adolescent Research, 21(4), 323–369.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L. (2008). Narrative and the cultural psychology of identity. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 12(3), 222–247.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L. (2010). The cultural psychology of Palestinian youth: A narrative approach. Culture & Psychology, 16(4), 507–537.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L. (2011). Narrative and the politics of meaning. Narrative Inquiry, 21(2), 311–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L. (2014). Mind, story, society: The political psychology of narrative. In M. Hanne, W. Crano, & J. S. Mio (Eds.), Warring with words: Narrative and metaphor in politics (pp. 51–77). New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L., & Cohler, B. J. (2009). Narrative engagement and sexual identity: An interdisciplinary approach to the study of sexual lives. In P. L. Hammack & B. J. Cohler (Eds.), The story of sexual identity: Narrative perspectives on the gay and lesbian life course (pp. 3–22). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L., & Cohler, B. J. (2011). Narrative, identity, and the politics of exclusion: Social change and the gay and lesbian life course. Sexuality Research and Social Policy, 8, 162–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L., & Pilecki, A. (2012). Narrative as a root metaphor for political psychology. Political Psychology, 33(1), 75–103.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammack, P. L., & Toolis, E. (2014). Narrative and the social construction of adulthood. New Directions in Child and Adolescent Development, 145, 43–56.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, D. (2008). The right to the city. New Left Review, 53, 23–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hochschild, J. L. (1995). Facing up to the American dream: Race, class and the soul of the nation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodgetts, D., Stolte, O., Chamberlain, K., Radley, A., Nikora, L., Nabalarua, E., & Groot, S. (2008). A trip to the library: Homelessness and social inclusion. Social and Cultural Geography, 9(8), 933–953.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Josselson, R. (2004). The hermeneutics of faith and the hermeneutics of suspicion. Narrative Inquiry, 14, 1–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jost, J., & Hunyady, O. (2003). The psychology of system justification and the palliative function of ideology. European Review of Social Psychology, 13(1), 111–153.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krueger, A. (2012, January 12). The rise and consequence of inequality in the United States. Speech transcript retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/krueger_cap_speech_final_remarks.pdf.

  • Laurenson, P., & Collins, D. (2006). Towards inclusion: Local government, public space and homelessness in New Zealand. New Zealand Geographer, 62(3), 185–195.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lefebvre, H. (1991). The production of space (Vol. 30). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lieblich, A., Tuval-Mashiach, R., & Zilber, T. (1998). Narrative research: Reading, analysis, and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Limbert, W. M., & Bullock, H. E. (2009). Framing US redistributive policies: Tough love for poor women and tax cuts for seniors. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 9(1), 57–83.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lott, B. (2002). Cognitive and behavioral distancing from the poor. American Psychologist, 57(2), 100–110.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Lott, B., & Bullock, H. E. (2007). Psychology and economic injustice: Personal, professional, and political intersections. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mathison, S. (1988). Why triangulate? Educational Researcher, 17(2), 13–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. (1995). The end of public space? People’s Park, definitions of the public, and democracy. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85(1), 108–133.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell, D. (1997). The annihilation of space by law: The roots and implications of anti-homeless laws in the United States. Antipode, 29(3), 303–335.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • National Coalition for the Homeless (NHC). (2014, June). Vulnerable to hate: A survey of hate crimes & violence committed against the homeless in 2013. Retrieved from http://nationalhomeless.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Hate-Crimes-2013-1.pdf.

  • National Law Center on Homelessness & Poverty (NLCHP). (2014). No safe place: The criminalization of homelessness in U.S. cities. Retrieved from http://www.nlchp.org/documents/No_Safe_Place.

  • National Low Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC). (2014). Out of reach 2014: Twenty-five years later, the affordable housing crisis continues (pp. 1–241). Retrieved from http://nlihc.org/oor/2014.

  • Onishi, N. (2013, March 24). Violence brings an identity crisis in a free-spirited California beach town. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/25/us/violence-spurs-identity-crisis-in-free-spirited-santa-cruz.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1.

  • Opotow, S. (1990). Moral exclusion and injustice: An introduction. Journal of Social Issues, 46(1), 1–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Opotow, S. (2006). Seeking inclusion and pluralism: Two exploratory studies. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology, 12(4), 349–366.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Opsal, T. D. (2011). Women disrupting a marginalized identity: Subverting the parolee identity through narrative. Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, 40(2), 135–167.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pascale, C. M., & West, C. (1997). Social illusions: Responses to homelessness in Santa Cruz, California, 1989–1994. Perspectives on Social Problems, 9, 3–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Public Safety Citizen Task Force. (2013, December). Research, findings and recommendations: Santa Cruz City Public Safety Citizen Task Force (pp. 1–47). Retrieved from http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/home/showdocument?id=35125.

  • Ramirez, L. C., & Hammack, P. L. (2014). Surviving colonization and the quest for healing: Narrative and resilience among California Indian tribal leaders. Transcultural Psychiatry, 51(1), 112–133.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rappaport, J. (2000). Community narratives: Tales of terror and joy. American Journal of Community Psychology, 28(1), 1–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Reich, R. B. (2010). Aftershock: The next economy and America’s future. New York: Knopf Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Runyan, W. M. (1980). The Life Satisfaction Chart: Perceptions of the course of subjective experience. International Journal of Aging and Human Development, 11(1), 45–64.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shinn, M., Baumohl, J., & Hopper, K. (2001). The prevention of homelessness revisited. Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy, 1(1), 95–127.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sleeper, A. (2014, January 14). Out in the cold. Good times. Retrieved from http://www.gtweekly.com/index.php/santa-cruz-news/santa-cruz-environmental-news/5336-out-in-the-cold.html.

  • Snow, D. A., Baker, S. G., & Anderson, L. (1989). Criminality and homeless men: An empirical assessment. Social Problems, 36(5), 532–549.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Snow, D. A., & Mulcahy, M. (2001). Space, politics, and the survival strategies of the homeless. American Behavioral Scientist, 45(1), 149–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sonn, C. C., & Fisher, A. T. (1998). Sense of community: Community resilient responses to oppression and change. Journal of Community Psychology, 26(5), 457–472.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stiglitz, J. E. (2012). The price of inequality: How today’s divided society endangers our future. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). (2011, July). Current statistics on the prevalence and characteristics of people experiencing homelessness in the United States. Retrieved from http://homeless.samhsa.gov/ResourceFiles/hrc_factsheet.pdf.

  • Susser, I. (1996). The construction of poverty and homelessness in US cities. Annual Review of Anthropology, 25, 411–435.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tappan, M. B. (1997). Interpretive psychology: Stories, circles, and understanding lived experience. Journal of Social Issues, 53(4), 645–656.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tileagă, C. (2006). Representing the “other”: A discursive analysis of prejudice and moral exclusion in talk about Romanies. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 16(1), 19–41.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tileagă, C. (2007). Ideologies of moral exclusion: A critical discursive reframing of depersonalization, delegitimization and dehumanization. British Journal of Social Psychology, 46(4), 717–737.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Toolis, E. E., & Hammack, P. L. (2015). The lived experience of homeless youth: A narrative approach. Qualitative Psychology, 2(1), 50.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • United Nations Human Rights Committee. (2014, April 23). International covenant on civil and political rights: Concluding observations on the fourth periodic report of the United States of America (p. 8). Retrieved from http://www.refworld.org/docid/5374afcd4.html.

  • U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). (2013). The 2013 annual homeless assessment report (AHAR) to Congress: Point-in-time estimates of homelessness (pp. 1–58). Retrieved from https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/ahar-2013-part1.pdf.

  • U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness. (2013). Opening doors: Chronic homelessness. Retrieved from http://usich.gov/usich_resources/fact_sheets/opening_doors_chronic_homelessness/.

  • Western Regional Advocacy Project. (2014, September 8). National civil rights outreach fact sheet. Retrieved from http://wraphome.org/images/stories/hbr/NationalCivilRightsFactSheetDecember2014.pdf.

  • White, R. (1993). Youth and the conflict over urban space. Children’s Environments, 10(1), 85–93.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, T. (1997). Out of place: Homeless mobilizations, subcities, and contested landscapes. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wright, T. (2000). Resisting homelessness: Global, national, and local solutions. Contemporary Sociology, 29(1), 27–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The work presented here was supported by funding from the Psychology Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz. We wish to acknowledge the community members who graciously shared their time and stories with us and the field sites that supported our work. We thank Heather Bullock, Mary Beth Pudup, Miriam Greenberg, Andrew Pilecki, Anjali Dutt, Brandon Balzer-Carr, Harmony Reppond, Leifa Mayers, Robyn Goldberg, Christine Brown, Rachel Beyer, Tajalei Willard, and Tamar Bezjian for their suggestions and contributions to this project. We also thank Jacob Tebes and an anonymous reviewer for their comments on earlier versions of this article.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Psychology Faculty Services, University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz), 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064, USA

    Erin E. Toolis & Phillip L. Hammack

Authors
  1. Erin E. Toolis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Phillip L. Hammack
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erin E. Toolis.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Toolis, E.E., Hammack, P.L. “This is My Community”: Reproducing and Resisting Boundaries of Exclusion in Contested Public Spaces. Am J Community Psychol 56, 368–382 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9756-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-015-9756-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation