Street begging in modern cities may often be a performance rather than genuine destitution.

Evidence

In the modern city, begging has largely passed from the scene. And with it have gone also those who had truly perfected this version of the game of performing. Nevertheless, there is some indication that they may not be gone forever. An increasingly frequent sight in the modern city is the young, rather shabbily dressed white “floater” standing on street corners asking all who pass by for their “spare change.” The extent to which these young beggars are as destitute as they sometimes appear is not known. Many, having cut their ties with home, having gotten “strung out” on drugs or having simply rejected Western materialism, may, in fact, be as poor as their pitiable appearances would suggest. But one cannot help but suspect that here and there, in this individual or that, the spirit of the preindustrial con-man has surely been resurrected. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 960

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s flâneur analysis—the street ‘floater’ is another stranger in public space whose appearance cannot be trusted, reinforcing the theme of untrustworthy urban appearances. Also echoes Erving Goffman’s performance framework.