Emma Jackson - Young Homeless People and Urban Space

This ethnographic exploration of contemporary spaces of homelessness takes an expanded view of homeless space, threading together experiences of organizational spaces, routes taken through the city, and the occupation of public space. Through engaging with participants accounts of movement and place, the book argues that young homeless people become fixed in mobility, a condition that impacts on both everyday life and possible futures. Based on an innovative multi-method study of a day centre in London for young homeless people, the book contextualizes spaces of homelessness within the social relations and flows of people that produce the world city. The book considers how the biographical and everyday trajectories of young homeless people intersect with place attachments and forms of governance to produce urban homeless spaces. It provides a new angle on the city made by movement, foregrounding the impact of mobilities shaped by loss, violence, and the search for opportunity. The book draws on mental maps, photography, interviews, and observation in order to produce an engaging and rich ethnographic account of young homeless people in the city.

Emma Jackson is a lecturer in Sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Routledge Advances in Ethnography

Edited by Dick Hobbs, University of Essex and Geoffrey Pearson, Goldsmiths College, University of London

Ethnography is a celebrated, if contested, research methodology that offers unprecedented access to peoples intimate lives, their often hidden social worlds and the meanings they attach to these. The intensity of ethnographic fieldwork often makes considerable personal and emotional demands on the researcher, while the final product is a vivid human document with personal resonance impossible to recreate by the application of any other social science methodology. This series aims to highlight the best, most innovative ethnographic work available from both new and established scholars.

1 Holding Your Square
Masculinities, Streetlife and Violence
Christopher W. Mullins

2 Narratives of Neglect
Commonity, Regeneration and the Governance of Security
Jacqui Karn

3 Families Shamed
The Consequences of Crime for Relatives of Serious Offenders
Rachel Condry

4 Northern Soul
Music, Drugs and Subcultural Identity
Andrew Wilson

5 Flashback
Drugs and Dealing in the Golden Age of the London Rave Scene
Jennifer R. Ward

6 Dirty Dancing?
An Ethnography of Lap-Dancing
Rachela Colosi

7 Crack Cocaine Users
High Society and Low Life in South London
Daniel Briggs

8 Builders
Class, Gender and Ethnicity in the Construction Industry
Daniel Thiel

9 City, Street and Citizen
The Measure of the Ordinary
Suzanne Hall

10 Changing Lives, Changing Drug Journeys
Drug taking decisions from adolescence to adulthood
Lisa Williams

11 Sport, Difference and Belonging
Conceptions of human variation in British sport
James Rosbrook-Thompson

12 Boy Racer Culture
Youth, Masculinity and Deviance
Karen Lumsden

13 Strong and Hard Women
An ethnography of female bodybuilding
Tanya Bunsell

14 UK Hip-Hop, Grime and the City
The Aesthetics and Ethics of Londons Rap Scenes
Richard Bramwell

15 Young Homeless People and Urban Space
Fixed in Mobility
Emma Jackson

Fixed in Mobility

Emma Jackson

First published 2015
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

2015 Emma Jackson

The right of Emma Jackson to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jackson, Emma, 1978
Young homeless people and urban space: fixed in mobility / by Emma Jackson.
pages cm. (Routledge advances in ethnography; 15)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Homeless youthGreat Britain. 2. Sociology, UrbanGreat Britain.
I. Title.
HV4545.A4J33 2015
362.7'7569dc23
2015011520

ISBN: 978-0-415-72216-2 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-85841-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

This project has a long history and many people have been involved in the process. I was extremely lucky to do my PhD with an incredibly supportive cohort in Sociology at Goldsmiths and also with the support of the NYLON group. I would like to thank them all for their company, inspiration, and pints in the Marquisespecially Kimberley Keith, Alex Rhys-Taylor, Natascha Mueller Hirth, Will Davies, Hilde Stephansen, and Nick Denes. Special thanks go to Anamik Saha, who has read drafts of chapters and has always been just a phone call away, from stats class onwards, and to Hannah Jones, who has been a massive support, both personally and intellectually, and an inspiring collaborator.

Thanks also to the Middle Classes and the City research team, especially trusty writing and research partner Michaela Benson. I have also benefitted enormously from the generosity and collegiality of Gary Bridge and Tim Butler.

A huge debt is owed to Bev Skeggs and Les Back. Thank you for your intellectual input, encouragement, inspiration, patience, and engagement with this project from the beginning.

Tremendous support and encouragement has come from my family, particularly my Mum and Dad, Michael and Janet, and my siblings Becky, Mike, and Di. Thanks also to all my lovely nieces and nephews: Joe, Izzy, Lily, Yasmin, Lola, Lal, Jerry, Orla, and Ava.

Marie Nixon has been there from the beginning. Thank you for nights out, adventures, and wise counsel. Much inspiration has come from Isabel Waidner. I have immensely benefitted from our coffees, talks, and walks over the years. Thanks also to the London crew, especially Anneliese Midgley, Paddy Pulzer, Emma Chambers, Gwyneth Holland, Lucy Madison, Dale Shaw, Martin Wallace, Geraldine Smith, Sarah Wayman, Emma Bowkett, Andy Rossiter, Bob Stanley, and Tessa Norton.

Id like to thank my best Glasgow girls for making me welcome in their city. Katherine Champion, for her friendship, support, and much needed yoga and writing breaks. Claire Biddles, for inspiration and collaboration. The generosity of Kirsteen Paton opened up the city for me and I have benefitted massively from our conversations about class and cities. Id also like to thank Glasgows favourite quiz team, the Partick Swayzes, for their friendship. Thanks to Matt Dawson for encouragement through the book writing process and for sociological coffees, and to Vikki Turbine for scones and feminist chat. Thanks to Ali Hutcheson for last-minute help with the images.