An Ethnography about Homelessness in Michigan Communities

• In Event: 095 - Section on Community and Urban Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 18. Housing.

Abstract

As inequality increases throughout America, the most destitute class of individuals remains lacking upward mobility. Homeless individuals live on the streets of some of the most affluent small towns in the Midwest and encounter civilians in many places. I perform an ethnography on college campuses and deindustrialized cities in Michigan to examine the experience of homeless individuals and how they interact with civilians. I live as homeless, in homeless shelters, and gather field notes to build grounded theory about the social experience of being homeless.

Author

• John Robert Girdwood, Michigan State University