Peer review declarationThe publisher (AOSIS) endorses the South African 'National Scholarly Book Publishers Forum Best Practice for Peer Review of Scholarly Books'. The manuscript was subjected to rigorous two-step peer review prior to publication, with the identities of the reviewers not revealed to the author(s). The reviewers were independent of the publishers and/or authors in question. The reviewers commented positively on the scholarly merits of the manuscript and recommended that the manuscript be published. Where the reviewers recommended revision and/or improvements to the manuscript, the authors responded adequately to such recommendations.v Research JustificationThis scholarly publication is intended to contribute to an emerging body of knowledge on street homelessness in the South African context. The target audience comprises research specialists focusing on finding solutions for homelessness; however, it would be accessible to a diverse readership. It offers both conceptual frameworks and practical guidelines for a liberative and transformative response to homelessness. It brings together authors from a wide range of disciplines, fusing the rigour of researchers, the vision of activists and the lived experience of practitioners. This volume traces the causes and identifies the diverse faces of street homelessness in South Africa today. It critiques singular solutions and interrogates the political, institutional and moral failures that contribute to the systemic exclusion of homeless persons and other vulnerable populations from society. It then proposes various rights-based interventions as part of a radical re-imagination of how street homelessness can be ended, one person and one neighbourhood at a time. In 'facing homelessness', we face the other, and in facing the other, we face ourselves. Grounding this exploration in the thought of Emmanuel Levinas (1969:207), it is appropriate to recall his words: '[T]he Other faces me and puts me in question and obliges me'. The political, institutional, moral and personal obligations that confront society in the face and presence of street homelessness, urban vulnerability and deep socio-economic inequality have to be considered, embraced and accounted for. However, these are not merely philosophical mutterings, as a liberationist framework prompts imaginative actions for change. The immersive and in-depth social analysis by the authors steer researchers in the direction of new ways of doing and being that could indeed demonstrate concrete, viable and sustainable alternatives to the exclusionary realities that are so visible in the face of street homelessness. 'Finding inclusionary, collaborative solutions' is therefore the sub-title of this publication, indicating its intention to contribute to solutions-based scholarship aimed at radical forms of social inclusion and achieved through broad based and creative collaborations by all spheres of society. Drawing on local and global lessons learnt and the specific lessons from successful and failed responses d...

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The HIV/AIDS pandemic in South Africa has negatively transformed the lives of many in townships and rural areas. People living with AIDS (PWAs) are the socially weakened, whose means of survival include migrating, enduring gender violence, and they are thus confined to living in the margins of society. Using the concept of tactic as defined by de Certeau, this paper shows how anthropology can use the narratives of everyday life to make sense of the different ways the socially weakened create networks of support, find a cure, and generate forms of income or use running away as a means to avoid gender violence. This paper argues that if the State hopes to successfully introduce antiretroviral therapy and so turn everyday logics of survival into long-term strategies, it needs to commit itself firmly to reducing inherited forms of inequalities. Similarly, the State's commitment to eradicate poverty also requires it to take cognisance of the different borderline activities the socially weakened regard as avenues of survival. Rather than morally condemn such activity as a wrongdoing, the State should enhance its knowledge of the socio-economic conditions that almost coerce the socially weakened to 'do wrong'. The data were collected during intensive fieldwork carried out in Alexandra township and Diepkloof (Gauteng) in 2001 - 2002, using participant observation and repeated in-depth interviews.

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