Compassionate revanchism: The blurry geography of homelessness in the USA
Hennigan, Brian
Compassionate revanchism: The blurry geography of homelessness in the USA - Sage 2019 - Vol 56, Issue 5, 2019 : (906-921 p.)
In this article we move beyond the binary division between care and punishment in urban studies of homelessness to examine how caring institutions are themselves crucial to the punitive and exclusionary project of capitalist urbanisation. Based on ethnographic and archival analysis of homelessness management in Fresno, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, we show how punitive measures and institutions of care often emerge simultaneously and operate in tandem as part of a broader scheme for urban revitalisation. Further, we show how caring institutions themselves often perform the function of controlling homeless people’s movements in the city, while punitive institutions adopt more caring tactics. Thus, we argue for a focus on how compassion and criminalisation are regularly blurred.
criminalisation
spaces of care
public space
homelessness
Compassionate revanchism: The blurry geography of homelessness in the USA - Sage 2019 - Vol 56, Issue 5, 2019 : (906-921 p.)
In this article we move beyond the binary division between care and punishment in urban studies of homelessness to examine how caring institutions are themselves crucial to the punitive and exclusionary project of capitalist urbanisation. Based on ethnographic and archival analysis of homelessness management in Fresno, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, we show how punitive measures and institutions of care often emerge simultaneously and operate in tandem as part of a broader scheme for urban revitalisation. Further, we show how caring institutions themselves often perform the function of controlling homeless people’s movements in the city, while punitive institutions adopt more caring tactics. Thus, we argue for a focus on how compassion and criminalisation are regularly blurred.
criminalisation
spaces of care
public space
homelessness