Making Better Lives - Home Making Among Homeless People in Paris

How do homeless people make homes on the street? Over two years of fieldwork in Paris, I observed the daily practices and routines of people who are sleeping rough. How do they earn money through begging? What factors do they consider when finding and making shelters? I followed people through different institutional settings – a homeless day centre, a needle exchange, a centre for people with alcohol problems and ultimately also a homeless shelter – on their way away from the street always documenting the conflicts between their short term – drugs and alcohol – and long term hopes. I observed the ways which they were supported by assistants socials and other institutional actors in their struggle to create spaces of reflective freedom. I argue that their efforts were about home making and as such about making a better life first on and then away from the street.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Lenhard, Johannes Felix

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Laidlaw, James

• Homelessness
• Anthropology
• Inequality
• Good Life

Licence

• https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/1fc4e8e4-cdd1-4693-8b92-2440d3277892/download
• https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.21752

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/274609