ETHNOGRAPHY AT THE MARGINS: SOCIAL POLICY AND SOLIDARITY-SCAPES IN A NORTHERN GREEK CITY

Abstract

Homelessness is frequently conceptualized as a condition of extreme deprivation, trauma, and social exclusion—often portrayed as the ultimate erosion of sociality and human dignity. Such representations tend to reduce homeless individuals to “bare lives,” framed as permanently suspended in states of vulnerability and marginality. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in a homeless shelter, this article challenges these reductionist perspectives by examining the everyday strategies through which homeless individuals organize, negotiate, and render livable their immediate environments. Particular attention is given to the ways in which residents domesticate institutional spaces, transforming them into meaningful and emotionally invested places. Processes of spatial appropriation and emotional attachment are analyzed as mechanisms through which individuals strive to achieve stability, security, and a sense of continuity in identity. Furthermore, the article foregrounds the emergence of solidarity, mutual recognition, and shared practices of care as central dimensions of homeless social life. By emphasizing agency, relationality, and situated forms of belonging, the study contributes to a more nuanced, dynamic, and less stigmatizing understanding of homelessness.