Begging as a disruption of public order : A critical discourse analysis of societal attitudes behind written language in municipal begging bans

In order to gain an understanding of how begging is constructed as a societal problem in the local Swedish social context, the aim of this qualitative study was to investigate a number of municipal begging bans in order to make visible societal attitudes that hide behind written language of begging discourse. The data collection method was text collection, and the material was documents in the form of three municipal begging bans (in municipal regulations). The method of analysis was critical discourse analysis (CDA), a form of textual analysis, and the analytical focus was the written discourse in its social context. The municipal begging bans that were analysed testified to a very high degree linguistically about negative societal attitudes towards begging, and the conclusions that could be drawn on the basis of the results were presented in four summarising themes. These where: disruption of public order, a vulnerability that one does not want to contribute to maintaining, ”we and them” and passivity and criminality. These societal attitudes could be summarized as not our vulnerable/poor = not our problem, and were largely hidden behind references to disruption of public order in public spaces