Panhandling as a Redistributive Institution

• In Event: 355 - Section on Economic Sociology Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 07. Inequality: Structure and Mechanisms

Abstract

In this paper I try to clarify the analytic approach and potential research problems that have come out of my exploratory work on urban begging. Analyzing panhandling as a redistributive institution conditioned by and affecting a broader context of urban capitalism, I have examined its relations to private property, the labor market and market exchange itself. Its support and straining of capitalism and inequality in those domains is an underlying concern.

Author

• Brian C. Bartholomew, Independent Scholar