Compassionate revanchism: the blurry geography of homelessness in the USA

Hennigan, Brian and Speer, Jessie ORCID: 0000-0003-1636-803X (2019) Compassionate revanchism: the blurry geography of homelessness in the USA. Urban Studies, 56 (5). 906 - 921. ISSN 0042-0980

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Abstract

In this article we move beyond the binary division between care and punishment in urban studies of homelessness to examine how caring institutions are themselves crucial to the punitive and exclusionary project of capitalist urbanisation. Based on ethnographic and archival analysis of homelessness management in Fresno, California, and Phoenix, Arizona, we show how punitive measures and institutions of care often emerge simultaneously and operate in tandem as part of a broader scheme for urban revitalisation. Further, we show how caring institutions themselves often perform the function of controlling homeless people’s movements in the city, while punitive institutions adopt more caring tactics. Thus, we argue for a focus on how compassion and criminalisation are regularly blurred.

Item Type:	Article
Official URL:	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/usj
Additional Information:	© 2018 Urban Studies Journal Limited
Divisions:	Geography & Environment
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Date Deposited:	06 Nov 2020 16:39
Last Modified:	17 Apr 2024 23:13
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/107154

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