Surviving in the post-repatriation era: home-making strategies of homeless people in post-socialist China

Jinwei Hao, Jin Zhu and Sian Thompson

Housing Studies, 2022, vol. 37, issue 2, 292-314

Abstract: While Chinese people are technically guaranteed a place to live through the hukou system, homelessness is still an issue in China. Our paper aims to explore the home-making strategies of homeless people in the context of China’s homelessness policy transition from repatriation to assistance in the post-socialist era, using in-depth interviews with homeless people and others interacting with them in Shanghai’s high-prestige downtown area. Drawing on Giddens’ structuration theory, we find that homeless people work to create a sense of home through: 1) avoiding the government service centres where freedom, privacy and social contact are restricted; 2) adapting their routines to rigid place management in the daytime and benefitting from strict security at night; and 3) tactically utilising surrounding spaces and facilities to carry out daily activities and develop a sense of home and control. Government assistance through the service centres is inadequate and may even be diametrically opposed to home-making, highlighting room for improvement in government homelessness policies.

Date: 2022
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/02673037.2020.1867082 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:chosxx:v:37:y:2022:i:2:p:292-314

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/chos20

DOI: 10.1080/02673037.2020.1867082

Access Statistics for this article

Housing Studies is currently edited by Chris Leishman, Moira Munro, Ray Forrest, Alex Schwartz, Hal Pawson and John Flint

More articles in Housing Studies from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().