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This study aims to explore the lives and narrative counts of five homeless people in contemporary South Africa: a post-apartheid context characterized by a rapidly emerging globalized consumer culture and an internal tension in the government commitment to social welfare and while simultaneously following less benevolent neoliberal economic models. The primary concern of the study is the ways in which these marginalized individuals talk about themselves, the stories of their lives and represent themselves through narratives. Their lives, identities and stories are constructed from marginal and socially neglected spaces. The study grapples with what makes us human and the human consequences of global capitalism and consumerism. The study explores the connections homelessness and 'home'; and between homelessness and economic agency. Here homeless identities are constructed outside of the socially valued place of the home and defined by their jobless status and by their lack of economic agency. This means that homeless people have to constantly negotiate their socially 'threatened' and 'threatening' identities from the margins of society. The narratives of the participants reveal gendered and economic factors that precipitate the choice of a street existence as well as structural factors that keep homeless people 'the other'. The narratives further reveal contested meanings of home as connoting security and as a space for identity construction but also as the site for risk, exploitation, violence, and abuse, especially against women. The study suggests that homeless people can be thought of as displaced people in search for 'home' and for positive social identities. / Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2005.

Thesis (M.A.)--York University, 2006. Graduate Programme in Geography. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 166-171). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR19639

Thesis (M Arch)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christopher Livingston. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-49).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1999. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-210).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wyoming, 2009. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on July 29, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 132-142).

Thesis (Ph.D.) -- Virginia Commonwealth University, 2004. / Title from title-page of electronic thesis. Prepared for: School of Social Work. Bibliography: p. 152-160.

In 1981, the General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1987 as the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH), to raise the consciousness of the world to the estimated 100 million people who have no shelter, and to the 1 billion who lack a secure, permanent home which they can afford. This dissertation contributes to the goals and objectives of the IYSH, and introduces conceptual and practical considerations which are pertinent to a geographic examination of homelessness in Canada. Field observations from across the country are integrated with a critical appraisal of the international literature to demonstrate that the spatial distribution and diversity of the homeless are related to physical shelter problems and to a combination of individual, social and economic precipitants which produce homelessness at a variety of regional, community and household scales. Three broad categories among the homeless in Canada are identified: those who are inadequately housed; those who are economically disenfranchised, and those who are socially marginalised and service-dependent. Homelessness is shown to be linked to a wide range of human, social and economic problems, for individuals and families, for communities and for society as a whole. It is defined as the absence of a continuing or permanent home over which people have personal control, and which provides the essential needs of shelter, privacy and security at an affordable cost, together with ready access to social, economic, health and cultural public services. In various regions of the country the problems historically have been chronic; in others, they are spatially and temporally episodic. It is argued here that the problem constitutes a legitimate focus of academic inquiry which is of significance and relevance to geography. Case examples are presented to show: homelessness results from the reciprocal relations between individuals and social processes; these relations are manifest in identifiable spatial forms; these spatial arrangements in turn influence the composition of the homeless and the sources of homelessness. Geographic considerations contribute to an understanding of homelessness in Canada through an analysis of how individual action, social processes and spatial relations are linked to the genesis and persistence of homelessness. By showing how certain events and conditions precipitate and exacerbate homeless-related problems, evidence is presented that the problems in Canada cannot be reduced to single-factor causal explanations. Despite regional and temporal variations, and the establishment of a social welfare safety net, poverty, unemployment and inadequate social assistance benefits have historically influenced the form of homelessness. The effects of deinstitutionalisation and revitalisation have significantly altered the structure of the inner city and the vital role which these areas play in providing a supportive community for the socially marginalised homeless. As living conditions have improved, housing problems of the homeless have shifted to concerns over affordability and the lack of low-cost accommodation. Two significant conclusions emerge: homelessness is not a problem OF cities; but IS amenable to public policy intervention, of which housing is a vital but not exclusive part of creating a place to call home. Given the classification of the homeless and the recognition that homelessness is manifest at varying geographic scales, differential policies, programmes and housing alternatives are required to assist the homeless and reduce homelessness. / Arts, Faculty of / Geography, Department of / Graduate

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Sociology

Orientador: Abílio Costa-Rosa / Banca: Sílvio José Benelli / Banca: Aldaiza Sposati / Resumo: Trata-se de uma exposição dos resultados de nossa práxis de intercessão-pesquisa no trabalho com pessoas em situação de rua, no Centro de Referência Especializado de Assistência Social (CREAS). Discutiremos o campo da assistência social sob o prisma de um trabalhador-intercessor-pesquisador que se utiliza dos seguintes referenciais: a psicanálise do campo de Freud e Lacan, o materialismo histórico, a análise institucional e a filosofia da diferença. Esses referenciais oferecem a possibilidade de analisarmos as práticas, os saberes e os discursos desse campo, bem como de intercedermos nele. Conceituaremos Assistência Social como uma instituição, retomando rapidamente a trajetória da Política Nacional da Assistência Social bem como o contexto que a originou, tecendo algumas considerações sobre esse processo. Em seguida, analisaremos a Assistência Social por meio de dois paradigmas, que consideraremos alternativos e contraditórios: paradigma caridoso filantrópico assistencialista (PCFA), que detém a hegemonia no campo da assistência social, e paradigma do sujeito de direitos (PSD), cujo horizonte de trabalho vai em direção dos interesses da população atendida e dos próprios trabalhadores da assistência social. Abordaremos também as bases do dispositivo intercessor: uma ferramenta de intercessão-pesquisa com a finalidade de ação na práxis das instituições públicas "prestadoras de serviços". Pautando-nos nesses elementos, relataremos a nossa práxis como um trabalhador-intercessor, ou melhor, analisaremos os atravessamentos, acontecimentos e atendimentos diários no trabalho com as pessoas em situação de rua em um município de grande porte, que está implantando uma unidade de Serviços Especializados: de Abordagem Social e Atendimento às Pessoas em Situação de Rua / Abstract: We will explain our praxis of Intercessão-Research on the work with homeless people at the Social Assistance Specialized Reference Center (CREAS). We will discuss the social assistance field under the worker-intercessor-researcher sight that uses the following references: Psychoanalysis on Freud and Lacan field, Historical Materialism, Institutional Analysis and the Philosophy of Difference. Those references enhable to analyse and to act in response to the practices, knowledges and discourses on this field. We will concept Social Assistance as an institution, and will go on a brief path through the Social Assistance National Policy and the context that gave origin to it, taking some considerations about this process. Following that, we will paradigmatic analyse Social Assistance as two paradigms, considered both alternative and contradictory: Charity Philanthropy Assistentialist Paradigm (PCFA), which holds hegemony on the Social Assistance fields, and the Subject of Rights Paradigm (PSD), this as a work horizon that goes on the direction of the assisted population's and the own Social Assistance worker's interests. Also will be explained the Intercessor Device's basis: an Intercessão-Research tool, intending to act in the "service's provider" public institution's praxis. Ruled on those elements, our praxis as a worker-intercessor will be reported, or better saying, the crossings, events and daily attendances with the homeless people; in a large city which is in the implantation process of the specialized services: social approach and attendance to the homeless people / Mestre