engleski

You’re not on the margins of society, you’re outside of it! Loneliness and social isolation among people experiencing homelessness

Loneliness is understood as an emergent relational process tied to social practices and places, themselves embedded in political economy, structural violence, and cultural expectations which are gendered, raced, and classed (Ozawa-de Silva & Parsons 2020). Although loneliness is a social phenomenon that affects everyone, homeless persons are often at a greater risk of social isolation and loneliness. Feelings of loneliness, social rejection, and abandonment are common experiences among those who are disconnected from their family/friends and cannot participate in networks of community, care and friendship. This paper addresses loneliness as a lived experience foregrounding subjective experiences and cultural processes. It draws on ethnographic fieldwork that is part of a joint comparative research project (CSRP) on homelessness in Croatia. Specifically, it focusses on how persons experiencing homelessness perceive their position, the rootedness of their social isolation in past often dysfunctional family circumstances as well as an overall lack of services that presently fail to meet their emotional needs. The hardships of not having a ‘home’ understood as a place of ‘privacy, control and security’ are also explored in relation to loneliness. Coping strategies such as pet companionship, reliance on homeless peers and dependence on volunteers as well as recommendations are discussed.

loneliness ; social isolation ; homelessness ; coping strategies

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