A clean and civil city: Local associations and the moral bordering of Parisian public space

Abstract

For years, city officials in Paris have tried to reduce ‘incivility’ to maintain public order and security. While civility is being used by the city to enforce a respect for others through a respect for public space, it is also being used to claim moral authority and legitimacy by groups who already enjoy a privileged access to these spaces. Although some of these groups may seek to bring their neighbours into an imagined moral community through ‘awareness raising’, others attempt a revanchist approach to push the ‘uncivil’ and ‘undeserving’ further outside the borders of this community. This article argues that in combatting incivility and bad behaviour, local associations attempt to establish a spatial and moral community that legitimises their vision of appropriate consumption and use of public space and excludes already-marginalised publics from its borders.