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Abstract

The experience (as opposed to the concept) of homelessness is hardly part of the academic discourse in education, cultural studies, or human development. One of the central goals of our special issue is to create a bridge between homelessness as a personal experience and homelessness as a public issue. Along with the personal experience that breaks free from the deficit-model informing dominant notions of homelessness, we also want to bring attention to the politics in the construction of knowledge about homelessness. Starting from street folk’s textual representations of their visceral knowledge of homelessness, we offer a reading of current dominant narratives of homelessness: narratives of poverty as individual trouble (as opposed to systemic expression of ideologies of domination), narratives of personal choice (as in “choose the right” movements), and narratives of charity (as in “feel good about yourself for spending a week of your spring break vacation helping clean and build around Katrina”).

Keywords

Critical pedagogy homelessness narratives of inclusion

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References

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Critical Homelessness: Expanding Narratives of Inclusive Democracy

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