National Presentation Launches Sociological Study of a Cincinnati Community Activist Program

What defines criminal loitering versus acceptable loitering – belonging versus exclusion – in neighborhoods? University of Cincinnati analysis around those themes will be presented on Aug. 20 at the 106th annual meeting of the American Sociological Association in Las Vegas.

Amanda Staight, a doctoral student in UC’s Department of Sociology, is looking ahead to a year of interviews with community leaders and residents of Westwood, a Cincinnati neighborhood, as she begins her exploration of that neighborhood, beginning with the community activist program, Good Guy Loitering. Staight is exploring how residents differentiate between what’s considered criminal and permissible loitering.

The anti-crime program, Good Guy Loitering, defines itself as a program that gathers neighbors and friends together in an area of the community that is struggling with “bad behavior.” The gatherings encourage positive interactions involving drinking soda or coffee and sitting in lawn chairs.

“Good Guy Loitering enacts claiming/reclamation of physical spaces by positioning the body in what they conceive of as appropriate neighborhood behaviors,” writes Staight.

“Few previous scholarly works have used a sociology of the body lens to analyze neighborhoods,” Staight explains in her paper. “I maintain that considering perceptions of neighborhood belonging and exclusion provides a unique means to consider a neighborhood.”

Staight explains that social class, privilege and opportunity are common aspects that individuals embody.  She says one means by which the community group differentiates itself from other loiterers is to identify themselves as authentic residents of the neighborhood.

The program has been expanding into other Cincinnati communities. Staight says that over the next year, she’ll be conducting interviews with the Westwood community on “the ‘good’ and ‘bad’ sides of loitering.”

“Cincinnati is a city that needs sociological research to help it understand the effects of its past and develop its future,” she says. “I anticipate this project will present many fascinating themes.”