The Bench: An open drug scene and its people

Abstract

AIMS - This article describes life in an open illicit drug milieu in a Norwegian city. This site, called “the Bench”, is a stigmatised place, and if one sits there, one is marked with the stigma of the place. Our aim is to gain insights into what stigmatised people gain from frequently visiting and staying in a public place that in itself is stigmatised. METHOD - One of the authors spent a year of participant observation, studying what went on at the Bench. He managed to build rapport in a gradual process of inclusion. The theoretical perspective rests on classic ethnography, symbolic interactionism and sociology on labelling and purity and dirt. RESULTS - “The Bench” is not only a local drug market, but also a social meeting place in which one can feel dignity, and where a certain humanisation process takes place through the rituals of everyday life. On “the Bench” it is possible to tell stories of decay, failures and shortcomings in life, stories that in other social arenas would be interpreted as symbols of stigma and degradation. “The Bench” is also a place in which different established power relations may be turned around through storytelling and jokes. This provides the bench-sitters with a sense of mutual control and agency. CONCLUSION - Socialising at “the Bench” is an expression of the need among social human beings to have their existences confirmed, in a society where they have been marginalised and looked upon as second-class citizens, as urban outcasts.

Keywords

• ethnography
• urban outcasts
• open drug scene
• symbolic interactionism
• urban spaces