Utilizing innovative ethnographic research,
Swept Up Lives? challenges conventional accounts of urban homelessness to trace the complex and varied attempts to care for homeless people
- Presents innovative ethnographic research which suggests an important shift in perspective in the analysis and understanding of urban homelessness
- Emphasizes the ethical and emotional geographies of care embodied and performed within homeless services spaces
- Suggests that different homelessness ‘scenes’ develop in different places due to varied historical, political, and cultural responses to the problems faced
Figures and Tables vi
Series Editors' Preface vii
Acknowledgements viii
Abbreviations x
1 Introduction: Re-envisioning the Homeless City 1
2 From Neoliberalization to Postsecularism 22
3 Tactics and Performativities in the Homeless City 61
4 'He's Not Homeless, He Shouldn't Have Any Food': Outdoor Relief in a Postsecular Age 92
5 'It's Like You Can Almost Be Normal Again': Refuge and Resource in Britain's Day Centres 117
6 'It's Been a Tough Night, Huh?' Hopelessness (and Hope) in Britain's Homeless Hostels 147
7 Big City Blues: Uneven Geographies of Provision in the Homeless City 181
8 On the Margins of the Homeless City: Caring for Homeless People in Rural Areas 211
9 Conclusions 241
References 255
Index 274
“Overall, this book makes a substantial contribution to research on urban homelessness. It provides a glimpse into a network of emotions relationships, and service provision that is underacknowledged in urban geography.”  (Thl#)