Journal Facts

Journal
Auto/Biography
ISSN
0967-5507
Volume
14
Issue
2

Article Facts

Title
Agency, Structure and Biography: Charting Transitions Through Homelessness in Late Modernity
DOI
10.1191/0967550706ab043oa
Author
Carol McNaughton (University of Glasgow, UK, c.mcnaughton.1 at research.gla.ac.uk)
Pages
134-152

Article Links

Agency, Structure and Biography: Charting Transitions Through Homelessness in Late Modernity

Carol McNaughton (University of Glasgow, UK, c.mcnaughton.1 at research.gla.ac.uk)

DOI: 10.1191/0967550706ab043oa

Abstract

This paper presents research that qualitatively and longitudinally charted the life course of 28 individuals, all experiencing homelessness or housing problems during the initial stage of data collection. The paper frames the exploration of the participants' biographies within theoretical perspectives that claim there is increased individualization, choice and risk, in late modernity, and examines how these claims may impact on the narratives that research respondents present of their lives. Although individual action and family background were identified as key influences on the participant's transitions through homelessness, it is argued that this may actually illustrate how the concept of individualization obscures the structural underpinnings that can still denote the chance people have to negotiate with insecurity and risks such as homelessness. The paper concludes by highlighting how the continued use of biographical research in this way is crucial if knowledge on, and social policy to address, social problems such as homelessness are developed that `fits' with how life is lived, and understood, by those experiencing these problems within the structures of contemporary society.

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