There is a growing body of research on homelessness, and collective action amongst the homeless. Tent cities are examples of self-help housing efforts. Tent cities are erected as shelter and make poverty visible in public domains. The form and interaction of tent cities are context specific. The perceptions of tent city participants in Canada remain partly understood by researchers. The aim of this thesis is to investigate activism and collective mobilization in one tent city – Cridge Park tent city - from the perspectives of tent city participants. I questioned what the experiences in the tent city meant for participants, their perceived public reaction to the tent city, and whether the research participants continue their activism beyond Cridge Park tent city. I present an empirically-grounded case study to uncover four participants’ perspectives of their involvement. I used qualitative research methods to access the perspectives of tent cities from four Cridge Park tent city participants. Cridge Park participants spoke of Cridge Park tent city as a “community” where they enjoyed freedom to negotiate their individual identity and where they found security and safety, which they lost when the tent city was closed. Including houseless persons in the decision-making process for services and policies that directly impact them is required to better meet their needs. Comparative research could investigate contextual differences and influences on the success or failure of tent cities as forms of social movement activities. / Graduate

Youth homelessness is a pressing problem in contemporary British urban politics. The emergence of youth homelessness, in the context of wider homelessness, has been conditioned by economic, political and social changes in British society. Young people have been particular casualties of these social changes. Whilst homelessness has been the consequence of larger structural changes, the character of youth homelessness has very much been determined by the homeless themselves. The relationship between human agency and structural constraint, and the implicit power relations therein are explored by recourse to Structurationist theory. In this context, a theoretically composite approach is posited drawing on livelihood analysis and Michel de Certeau's "Science of Singularity". Livelihood analysis is developed by recourse to Grounded theory to produce an ethnography of homeless survival tactics rooted in the experience of young homeless people living on the streets in London's West End. The emergent ethnography is subjected to the insights of Michel de Certeau, who provides a means for understanding the relationship between critical action and social constraint. Recognising the implicit social criticism of homeless life, this approach posits a regime of commodities, skills and sources (the resource regime) as a basis for homeless critical livelihood. This critical livelihood contextualised by structural constraint, and explored by creative endeavour, is used by the homeless to make their lives and to forge identity. This approach is implicitly spatial because the homeless draw on urban spaces to forge livelihood, and their trajectories in the city both contribute to social reproduction and are central to the criticisms they make. Correspondingly, homeless identity, forged through the processes of critical livelihood, is at times contradictory. Homeless identity emerges as one that is purposive and critical, whilst at the same time being dependent on the very circumstances of marginality for its substance and character.

This dissertation develops insights into subsistence related decision-making from the perspective of homeless and street involved young people themselves through 39 in-depth and life story interviews. The interviews provide insight into two important and underexplored questions: how the social organization of street spaces shapes street life and subsistence; and how the self is implicated in subsistence related decision-making. To address these questions the analysis develops a conceptual model based on field theory (Bourdieu 1984; Green 2008; Martin 2003) that conceptualizes “the street” as a collection of interlocking subfields—unique social terrains structured at the intersection of various social forces that position actors relative to one another and that orient actors towards particular approaches to street life. The core concepts of field theory—field, capital, and habitus—provide insight into how the unique social spaces of homelessness distribute resources, stratify actors, and provide discourses that frame practice. The analysis demonstrates the strength of this approach through case studies of three such subfields in Toronto. Further, the analysis extends the field framework, and contributes to research on the role of the self in street life, by examining how narratives influence the navigation of street spaces. Actors use narratives to make sense of their circumstances and to invest lines of action with a sense of personal meaning. This narrative perspective is integrated with a dual process approach to action (Vaisey 2009) that states that action is influenced by internalized dispositions formed through experience and upbringing (habitus), as well as through available cultural resources that underwrite and legitimize courses of practice. I extend this approach by considering how these two processes interact within narratives, and how the resulting interplay shapes how the homeless navigate the social spaces of homelessness.

No description available.

Despite the large number of hepatitis C tests performed in Australia each year and the effort expended on developing and implementing policies to regulate this practice, very little research has been undertaken on the human factors associated with hepatitis C testing. This thesis aims to: 1) examine patterns (prevalence and incidence) of hepatitis C testing among young people who experience homelessness in Melbourne, Australia, and how they relate to behavioural and contextual factors, and 2) examine the contexts in which hepatitis C testing occurs for these young people. Two studies were undertaken to address these aims. The first employed longitudinal panel surveys collected from young people who had recently become homeless for the first time (N=165) over three waves: baseline, 12-month and 24-months. The second employed semi-structured qualitative interviews 24-months after baseline with 20 young people recruited from the longitudinal cohort.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 123-162).

Thesis (M.A.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "August 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105). Also available online.

Thesis (M.Pub.Admin.)--Flinders University, Flinders Institute of Public Policy and Management. / Typescript spiral-bound. Includes bibliographical references: (pp. 78-85) Also available online.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Glasgow, 2007. / Ph.D. thesis submitted to the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science, University of Glasgow, 2007. Includes bibliographical references. Print version also available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1996. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [158]-170).