Homeless women, material objects and home (un)making

Lindsey McCarthy

Housing Studies, 2020, vol. 35, issue 7, 1309-1331

Abstract: There is a growing body of literature that attests that self-articulation is carried out through the building, decorating and arranging of home. This, for the most part, has tended to overly focus on inhabitants of private, secure and permanent housing. Addressing a gap in literature and theory, this article explores the possibilities of homemaking for the growing sections of society in insecure housing or homelessness situations—for whom housing is neither stable, secure nor a necessarily positive entity. It does so by drawing on in-depth interviews and participant-produced photographs from women accessing homelessness services in the North of England. Of interest here is how homeless women relate to, engage with and use material culture (objects, possessions and the physical dwelling) to simultaneously make and unmake home. The article subsequently offers a new empirical focus for material culture studies which has so far largely neglected the experiences of marginalized groups.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2019.1659235

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