Managing Marginality in Railway Stations: Beyond the Welfare and Social Control Debate

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00920.x Byline: FRANCOIS BONNET (1) Keywords: poverty; railway stations; welfare; social control; police; non-governmental organization; agency; homeless; voluntary organizations Abstract: Abstract How to rid railway stations of the marginalized people who congregate in them? This is the problem faced by railway companies which are seeking to maximize the commercial drawing power of their spaces. The limitations of a strictly repressive policy are prompting railway companies to fund non-profit community-based organizations to carry out social policies aimed at the marginalized. Based on two studies in the railway stations of Lyon and Milan, the article analyses how this strategy was implemented. Our analysis involves differentiating our work from two hypotheses: the irenic hypothesis, which sets social policies in opposition to security policies, and the malefic hypothesis, which equates social policies with security policies. The work of the non-profit community-based organizations shows that the boundary between social policy and security policy is a tenuous one, since the principal aim is to disperse marginalized people and move them away from the station. Control of marginalized people is based on the use of incentive structures rather than on coercion. The community organizations also have to retain control of their philanthropic legitimacy, which they are selling to the railway companies, but which they are also putting at risk. Focusing on the agency of the actors allows us to avoid both an irenic analysis (in which 'human' and 'just' social policies come to the aid of the marginalized) and a malefic analysis (in which social policies are merely security policies in disguise). Resume Comment se debarrasser des marginaux qui se concentrent dans les gares? Tel est le probleme des compagnies ferroviaires qui cherchent a maximiser l'attractivite de leur espace. Les limites d'une politique strictement repressive conduisent les compagnies ferroviaires a financer des associations afin que celles-ci menent des politiques sociales en direction des marginaux. L'article, fonde sur deux monographies dans les gares de Lyon et Milan, analyse la mise en OEuvre de cette strategie. Analyser la politique mise en OEuvre suppose de se demarquer de deux conceptions, celle qui oppose politiques sociales et politiques de securite, et celle qui identifie les politiques sociales a des politiques de securite. Le travail des associations montre que la frontiere entre politique sociale et politique de securite est tenue: il s'agit avant tout de disperser les marginaux et de les eloigner de la gare. La gestion des marginaux repose sur la mise en OEuvre de structures d'incitation plutot que sur la coercition. Les associations doivent aussi gerer leur legitimite philanthropique, qu'elles monnaient aupres des compagnies ferroviaires, mais qu'elles mettent aussi en danger. L'attention a l'agency des acteurs permet d'eviter une analyse irenique (ou des politiques sociales 'humaines' et 'justes' viennent en aide aux marginaux) et une analyse malefique (ou les politiques sociales ne sont que des politiques de securite travesties). Author Affiliation: (1)Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques, Sciences Po, Center for Urban Research and Policy, Columbia University, France Article note: Francois Bonnet (francois.bonnet@sciences-po.org), Observatoire Francais des Conjonctures Economiques, Sciences Po, Center for Urban Research and Policy, Columbia University, 52 rue Jeanne d'Arc, 75013 Paris, France.