Group Work. Statements about Homelessness
1) Individually type the word homelessness in a search engine and pick up 2 of the references (hyperlinks) that appear on the first page or from the first 20. Read each one of them and make two lists of statements about homelessness:
1.1) Statements that describe homelessness. For example one of the search results that appeared on the top of our search list was from https://www.crisis.org.uk/ending-homelessness/about-homelessness/. The headline, which said ‘Homelessness is devastating, dangerous and isolating’ already gave us three words/concepts to include in the first list.
Try to collect at least 10 or preferably more alleged characteristics of homelessness. For each explain briefly what it means and how it may relate to possible actions concerning homelessness and the homeless.
You may notice that some of the concepts can be far from easy to interpret, some can be ambiguous at best, and some can be even misleading. In our example above we should check what ‘dangerous’ refers to. Does it mean that homelessness is in some way dangerous for the homeless or for their relatives? Or does it advise us to beware the homeless as they can be dangerous: if you search long enough you will surely come across such publications as well. The point here is that you need to code carefully in order to know what was said about homelessness.
1.2) Statements that make claims
about the causes of homelessness. For each such claim describe briefly how the author has tried to substantiate it, if at all.
These do not need
to be explicit descriptions of causal links. Causal relations could be
described just by phrases like “Homelessness is linked to…”, “many homeless
have had problems with alcohol…”, “The homeless more often than not have lived
in…”, “The homeless typically….” etc.
2) Now, get together as a group and compare your lists. Did you find the same terms? Did you interpret them in the same way?
3) Also take a look at this webpage. It belongs to an organisation trying to de-stigmatise homelessness. They suggest not using terms such as “the homeless” or “homeless people”. Look at the alternatives they suggest. Discuss with each other:
- What do you think is the purpose of trying to promote those alternatives?
- Do they entail any significant change in the way we perceive and address homelessness?
- Do you think these alternatives have a chance of replacing the usual kind of language usage about homelessness?