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`Let the Streets Take Care of Themselves': Making Sociological and Common Sense of `Skid Row'

Department of Sociology, Concordia University, 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd O, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, H3M 1M8, lhuey{at}alcor.concordia.ca

Thomas Kemple

Department of Sociology, University of British Columbia, 6503 NW Marine Drive, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 1Z1, kemple{at}interchange.ubc.ca

This essay develops a conceptualisation of skid row as a cultural and historical space for the containment of moral and material dereliction. First, the social scientific literature is reviewed, revealing the historical shift by which skid row became understood as a site for the containment of moral decay. Then, a Weberian `ideal type' is constructed to account for the use of skid row as an analytical concept. This ideal type is contrasted with two other prevalent patterns of urban displacement and effacement: the slum and ghetto. The conception is further tested through a consideration of two ethnographic studies of skid row districts, focusing on the everyday perceptions and experiences of community stakeholders. It is concluded that the range of cultural strategies of naming engaged in, support the retention of this contested term as a way of rendering the analytical aims of social scientists accountable to the commonsense understandings of community stakeholders.

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