The ‘lamentable sight’ of homelessness and the society of the spectacle

Jessica Gerrard and David Farrugia
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Jessica Gerrard: University of Melbourne, Australia
David Farrugia: University of Ballarat, Australia

Urban Studies, 2015, vol. 52, issue 12, 2219-2233

Abstract: In this paper, we contend that the visual discourses of poverty and inequality are constructed through everyday social relations – the visual, spatial and bodily ‘encounter’ with homelessness in public space, steeped in the politics of the stigmatised Other. Bringing together Erving Goffman’s theory of everyday encounters with Guy Debord’s society of the spectacle, we explore the intersection between the ‘sight’ and ‘scene’ of homelessness and the spectacle of capital in public space. We identify how everyday encounters with homelessness perpetuate the notion that homelessness is ‘out of joint’ in relation to the spatial and aesthetic logic of capital and commodity consumption and performance. Reflecting on the repercussions of this for understanding homelessness, we explore the aesthetic dimension of the experience of homelessness within the context of a public space saturated by the social and aesthetic relations and of capital.

Keywords: aesthetics; consumer capitalism; homelessness; public space; visual cultures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:52:y:2015:i:12:p:2219-2233

DOI: 10.1177/0042098014542135

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