Employment as a Foreign Realm: Spatial Alienation and Conceptions of Work among People with Experience of Homelessness

Work and employment are frequently presented as potential solutions for socially excluded people to overcome their disadvantage(s) and to (re)integrate into society. To assess the viability of pursuing employment pathways, it is important to understand previous engagement with, perceptions of, and attitudes towards work and employment among those who have encountered multiple forms of social exclusion. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 63 people who had experienced homelessness in Australia, this article examines what work means to people excluded from housing and work realms. The article proposes spatial alienation to conceptualise affective (constructive-antagonistic) and temporal (past-future) orientations to work, arguing that work can represent ordered , tainted , aspirational , and hostile space. The findings identify various factors that shape these orientations, demonstrate their consequences, and illustrate the agency that socially disadvantaged individuals exercise through and in relation to their engagement with work and employment.