Regaining autonomy and family: Ethnography in a program for homeless citizens in Santiago de Chile

• In Event: 2323 - Student Forum Refereed Roundtable
  In Refereed Roundtable 100min: 2. Housing and Immigration in a Global Context

Abstract

This paper is about the pragmatic and political makings of citizens in a Chilean housing program for homeless people. Drawing upon the Foucauldian ideas of power and institutions, it explores how the program´s control over beneficiaries’ space, time, movement, and words affected their individualized way of being. Through the teaching of “bonding capabilities,” the program’s aim was to transmit a particular set of abilities through which homeless people would be able to overcome homelessness by themselves. Beneficiaries were supposed to learn two things: how to become autonomous citizens, including living independently and planning their lives, and how to treat one another as “family,” including taking care of one another, being empathetic, and listening to one another. The latter shaped the program’s ideal citizen: a person who was not only able to be self-sufficient but also yearned to belong to a family. This article also reveals that beneficiaries developed tactical responses to this dominant imagery. Contrary to the program’s plan, the beneficiaries reshaped their relations with one another and even with themselves, using the same space and rules as those of the program, with the aim of co-existing peacefully with everyone and respecting one another’s privacy. This suggests that although citizens are created through discipline and control, individuals are also able to manipulate the symbols and interactions that shape them.

Author

• Paola Langer, UC Davis