The Right to Pass Freely: Circulation, Begging and the Mobile Self

Abstract

Scholars of public space and law criticize regulation that governs the behaviour of the public poor for both its illiberal effects and motivations. The arguments used to justify such regulation are frequently characterized as a smokescreen, concealing hidden agendas, and are thus often overlooked. But to fail to take such arguments seriously, I argue, is to miss their political traction. They reflect and help constitute a powerfully hegemonic view. This, I suggest, has less to do with their inherent truthfulness than with their basis in a prevailing social imaginary that can be characterized as broadly liberal. At their core is a particular conception of the atomistic self-governing individual, engaged in dyadic relations, structured according to a logic of negative rights, autonomy and mobility. Rather than damning the illiberalism of this law-talk, in other words, critics would do better to recognize and critique its deeply liberal nature

Keywords: public space, law, liberalism