Undercurrents: Outreach, homelessness and negotiating spaces on the streets of New York

• In Event: 1451 - Community and Urban Sociology Section Roundtables (1 hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: 12. Other Urban Issues

Abstract

Examing theoretical and conceptual issues, and engaging in ethnographic fieldwork this study addresses the social and spatial conditions of encounters between outreach workers and what can be described as 'homeless' individuals within the city spaces of Manhattan. Included is an exploration of situated understandings of spatiality, materiality, and temporality as implemented in practice by outreach workers and the homeless individuals through interaction and tacit knowledge.
This topic is in the process of being approached via ethnographic fieldwork using an overt 'participant observer' method, forming the data collection element of a forthcoming PhD thesis.

Author

• Joe Williams, Cardiff University