to understanding how law, both in creation and enforcement, permeates
social interactions in public space.
Keywords:Auto-ethnography; cultural imperialism; ethnographic
fieldwork; public space; sexual intimidationINTRODUCTION
The present paper narrates the methodological and analytical experience of
ethnographic fieldwork conducted on a neighbourhood shopping-square in
the suburb of a provincial Dutch town throughout the spring, summer and
autumn of 2011. The shopping-square accommodates a diverse public and
contains a vast array of formal social control. Besides extensive CCTV sur-
veillance the square has several restrictive behavioural bans, such as bans
on gathering with more than three persons, bans on consuming alcohol
and bans on using other psycho-active drugs, including qat.^1 Fieldwork
consisted of participant observation and informal street interviews. In the
case of the shopping-square under scrutiny here, the field interacted fiercely
with me. In the multi-ethnic and male-dominated space, my presence as a
middle-aged Caucasian female induced a wide range of responses: from
invigorative exchanges of ideas to outright hostility and sexual harassment.
The following will specifically focus on the interactions between me and a
group of young male adolescents to whom I was a suspect intruder in
‘their’ space. I will relate both the methodological challenges this particular
fieldwork site posed to me and how the embodied experiences during field-
work eventually lead to theoretical insights on how law, both in creation
and enforcement, permeates social interactions in public space.
THE OVERARCHING RESEARCH PROJECT
The fieldwork on this site is part of a research project on ‘juridification’.^2
Within the scope of this research project, the concept juridification is used
to refer to the process in which social relations and norms are codified into
formal legal regulations.^3 A key distinction of course between a social
norm and a legal regulation is that the latter is backed up by legal sanc-
tions. Within this framework of juridification behavioural rules in public
2 DANIELLE CHEVALIER