No fixed address: homeless experiences of social welfare and penality in austerity Britain

This project is an ethnographic and historical study of the everyday interactions between the British state, its legal system and homeless individuals in London.

First, it seeks to understand the contemporary political economic context of British homelessness through the analysis of homeless oral life histories and accompanying state documents. Through such an analysis, the changing policies of the British penal and welfare state can be delineated through the various experiences that homeless individuals have had at JobCentres, prisons etc. during their life course. Further, the collection of oral histories provides a lens by which to examine the changes in urban space and time over the recent decades and to track these experiences against the evolution in public order policies. Finally, there is a keen interest in examining the changes in social care provision to the homeless, in light of recent policies, e.g., the 'Big Society'.