(Re)conceptualising the boundaries between home and homelessness: theunheimlich

Abstract

A burgeoning cross-disciplinary literature signifies a move towards diversifying understandings of the meanings of 'home'. Homelessness is inextricably bound up in these definitions. While earlier work has considered meanings of homelessness, attempts to advance understandings of the relationship between home and homelessness have been sporadic. This article attempts to reinvigorate discussion around the home-homelessness relationship by problematising the binaries in current understandings and poses a different way of theorising the interplay between the two concepts. Drawing on interviews with women accessing homelessness services in the North of England, discussion interweaves women's meanings of home and homelessness with the Freudian notion of the 'unheimlich'. The 'unheimlich' captures the uncanny process of inversion whereby the familiar domestic sphere of the house turns into a frightening place; and a typical space of homelessnessthe hostelis considered home. The article seeks to contribute more adequate theoretical tools for future research to better understand and articulate the complexities of home and homelessness.

Homemaking in the public. On the scales and stakes of framing, feeling, and claiming extra‐domestic space as “home”

“…If home starts with bringing some space under control (Douglas, 1991), the extra‐domestic sphere can also be part and parcel of it, although in place‐specific, selective and unequal ways. The homeless themselves, interestingly, may reattach some sense of home to different and public milieus (McCarthy, 2018; Mitchell, 1995; Veness, 1993).…”

For a comparative sociology of home: Relationships, cultures, structures

“…As such, the concept is easy to understand and rings ‘true’ for everyone’s life circumstances, including for those living in situations that are deeply unhomely (e.g. Van der Horst, 2004, on asylum seekers; McCarthy, 2018, on the homeless; Price, 2002, about the experience of domestic violence). As a matter of fact, due to its taken-for-granted quality, the social and biographical significance of home is fully illuminated only by its absence or loss, or by a diminished sense of it, as several contributions in this Special Issue reveal.…”

Making home? Permitted and prohibited place-making in youth homeless accommodation

“…Home, therefore, represents both 'reality' (how people experience home) and an ideal (a positive vision) (Somerville, 1992;Mallett, 2004) although the concept has received criticism for focusing more on the latter than the former. Such criticism has evolved through the revelation of a darker side of home in which people are harmed, trapped or traumatised (Gurney, 1997;Wilson et al, 2012;McCarthy, 2018) or research indicating the stress and frustration that can occur when living in precarious circumstances (Hoolachan et al, 2017;Soaita & McKee, 2019). Feelings of isolation and mental ill health associated with home have become especially prominent in the era of the COVID-19 pandemic which has seen millions of people being confined to their homes (Gurney, 2020), or facing greater exposure to the virus if they are homeless (Culhane et al, 2020).…”