The aim of this study was to highlight homelessness through the perspective of formerly homeless men and women. The research questions focused on the informants experiences of the process into and out of the homeless situation and how their experiences could contribute to the knowledge about the social problem of homelessness. Besides the theoretical perspective of narrative and life course research, Fuchs Ebaugh exit theory and Honneth confirmation theory were used as theoretical guidelines. The empirical material consists of five life stories obtained through indepth interviews. The results of the study indicate that alcohol and drug use was of importance for the process towards homelessness. External factors as the change in the organization of the housing market in the 1990´s may also had an impact on the lifes of the informants. The turning point, as the informants described it, was a combination of a lifestyle that they started to find more and more untenable, escalating drug- and alcohol abuse and increasing negative social relationships. Further, a home, to have an adress and a place to live, were described as essential to anable a change of their life situation. Concludingly, the importance of supportive personal relationships, both in the private sphere and with professionals, was stressed by all informants as important towards a positive change.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:su-65638 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Arnsvik, Anders |
| Publisher | Stockholms universitet, Institutionen för socialt arbete - Socialhögskolan |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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