Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.15176/vol62no214
“I Decided to Be a Fighter”: A Contribution to the Study of Escaping Homelessness
Ana-Marija Vukušić
orcid.org/0000-0003-2579-6052
; Institut za etnologiju i folkloristiku, Zagreb
Abstract
This article discusses a phenomenon that is insufficiently visible in the public sphere: escaping homelessness. It draws on the perception of the invisibility of homelessness in the public political context, as well as on the efforts of institutions and scholarly research to institute changes, particularly in social policy responses to these issues. Presenting three experiences of homelessness and processes of escaping it, the author – guided by the assumptions of the “anthropology of the good” – focuses on individual survival strategies, specifically a series of ambivalences that permeate life in homelessness, as well as on some ways of facing them when escaping homelessness. Such an approach emphasizes the heterogeneity of homelessness experiences, which is often overlooked in public perception and in numerous studies. As a result, the article opens up a space for the recognition, reflection, appreciation, and evaluation of individual life trajectories, as well as the individual strengths (and weaknesses) associated with them in various practices of public action guided by the broadly understood idea of “helping” this group of people.
Keywords
homelessness, escaping homelessness, ethnography of the individual, anthropology of the good
Hrčak ID:
341685
URI
Publication date:
19.12.2025.
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