The delicacy of the gift: Passing donations and leaving change

Based on the analysis of video recordings, this article analyses encounters where people give money to a Big Issue vendor (The Big Issue is a UK magazine sold on the street by people who are homeless). The article describes practical ways people delineate and move between gift and market economies in the way they approached the vendor, produced verbal accounts, recovered objects from their person, shaped to pass money and so on. Delicate interactional practices are described through which charitable gifts, which potentially subordinate the recipient, are presented and received within a bustling urban landscape.