Introduction: theorizing homelessness in affluent societies

J. Timo Weishaupt, Jan Weckwerth and Christian Hinrichs

Chapter 1 in Homelessness in Affluent Societies, 2026, pp 1-31 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Homelessness represents the most severe manifestation of poverty and, despite being preventable in well-developed welfare states, has nonetheless increased across many affluent societies in recent years. Existing explanations typically focus on individual factors, structural causes, or their combination. What is often missing is a comprehensive account of how these factors interact, while also taking into account when and how the welfare state intervenes (un)successfully. Inspired by Bourdieu's praxeological approach and applying a critical social policy lens, our integrative framework systematically considers three contexts: (1) individual resources, habitual dispositions, and biographical experiences as individual context; (2) intended and unintended mechanisms of (partial) exclusion within municipal welfare state services as institutional context; and (3) the influence of local housing markets and the neoliberalization of public spaces as (spatial-)structural context – as well as the interactions of these contexts. Finally, we incorporate third sector organizations as intermediary actors operating at the intersection of these contexts.

Keywords: Homelessness; Precarious Housing; Welfare State; Social Theory; Biography; Third Sector Organizations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035357260
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