ETHNOGRAPHY AT THE MARGINS: SOCIAL POLICY AND SOLIDARITY-SCAPES IN A NORTHERN GREEK CITY

Homelessness is often treated as a traumatic situation, an inescapable condition, the ultimate deprivation of humanity and sociality. Homeless people experience bare lives, lives deprived of human qualities, and a non-ending traumatic situation. My ethnographic fieldwork focuses on the multiple homeless strategies, such as how these people organize their everyday lives at the dormitory and domesticate the undomesticated space to create bearable, meaningful lives. Emotionalizing and appropriating space will be examined as mechanisms employed to achieve stability, security, and stable identities. The emergence of solidarity acquires a pivotal role in the discussion that follows. As such, mutual understanding and acceptance are vital notions explored in the article that lead to a more holistic, less biased, and more dynamic understanding of the homeless situation.