"Men vart leder ett lokalt tiggeriförbud i Vellinge?" : En fallstudie om hur tiggeri konstrueras i debatten om tiggeriförbud.

Sammanfattning: But what will be the result of a local ban on begging in Vellinge? : A case study on the construction of begging in the debate regarding a criminalization of begging. The aim of this study was to investigate the social construction of begging in the public debate regarding the criminalization of begging in Vellinge municipality in Sweden. A total of 34 documents concerning Vellinge municipality were analyzed. The documents were mostly composed of local newspaper articles, but also included some court verdicts and a local political decision. This study has a social constructive approach and the theoretical framework is composed by Accounts theory. In the findings we see that very few individuals have a neutral stance in the debate, rather the actors’ descriptions showed two significantly different sides of the question. Two positions regarding the criminalization of begging in Vellinge were found; pro and against. These two positions create two different perspectives on begging, which in turn have an impact on who is considered affected by begging and how the problem should be resolved. The perspective that promotes a ban presents measures aimed to ease the situation for Vellinge and the residents. On the other hand, the perspective that opposes a ban of begging states measures to improve the situation of the beggars. We also found that actors within the different perspectives have polarized positions and they blame each other of norm deviation. The study also demonstrates that actors in the debate use varied ways of excusing and/or justifying their position pro and against the criminalization of begging.