When interlocutors die: Time and space of mobility through the biography of a homeless man

Abstract

This article examines the ‘mobility’ of Mario, a former homeless person who settled in a neighbourhood of public housing in Milan. His mobility can be considered along two space–time dimensions. The first is ‘circular’ and concerns Mario’s daily movements. This space–time dimension can be analysed through a bibliography developed in the field of mobility studies: entangled among limitations and opportunities of movement, it refers to the constraints to which the Milanese indigent people are subject. However, a second dimension can be added. This refers to a ‘longitudinal’ space–time dimension, linked to Mario’s biography, ending with his death. This second dimension, not generally considered by mobility studies focused on homelessness, gives a wider perspective on the former dimension. Mario’s biography also challenges a dominant interpretation of the Italian ethnographic literature on homelessness, i.e. the subcultural approach. Moreover, it allows for a broader reassessment of the (im)mobility of the Milanese urban ‘pariahs’.