Sammanfattning
AIMS - This article describes life in an open illicit drug milieu in a Norwegian city. This site,
called "the Bench", is a stigmatised place, and if one sits there, one is marked with the stigma of the
place. Our aim is to gain insights into what stigmatised people gain from frequently visiting and
staying in a public place that in itself is stigmatised. METHOD - One of the authors spent a year of
participant observation, studying what went on at the Bench. He managed to build rapport in a
gradual process of inclusion. The theoretical perspective rests on classic ethnography, symbolic
interactionism and sociology on labelling and purity and dirt. RESULTS - "The Bench" is not only a
local drug market, but also a social meeting place in which one can feel dignity, and where a certain
humanisation process takes place through the rituals of everyday life. On "the Bench" it is possible
to tell stories of decay, failures and shortcomings in life, stories that in other social arenas would be
interpreted as symbols of stigma and degradation. "The Bench" is also a place in which different
established power relations may be turned around through storytelling and jokes. This provides the
bench-sitters with a sense of mutual control and agency. CONCLUSION - Socialising at "the Bench" is
an expression of the need among social human beings to have their existences confirmed, in a
society where they have been marginalised and looked upon as second-class citizens, as urban
outcasts.