A Study of the Urban Homeless—A Preliminary Analysis of the Coexistence between the Homeless and the Environment in Taipei
Date Issued
2004
Date
2004
Author(s)
Hsu, Chih-Wei
DOI
zh-TW
Abstract
Dirty, bad smelling, laziness, crime and danger are all the items for negative images. These are in general the viewpoints and feelings the public puts on the homeless. But do the homeless really show all these features? Or is it because the homeless with these features are obviously visible and are often reported by the media? However, what’s this special group, the homeless? Where do they live? What kind of life do they lead?
This study, which started from November lasted for 18months 2002 to April 2004. Through participant observation and interviews, this study tried to find out the coexistence structure and to disclose the interaction between the homeless and the environment so as to be the basis for the next sequential studies.
The study discovers that the homeless people have their own respective histories. Many reasons account for the homeless staying on the streets, including economy, personal, family and social factors. We couldn’t totally attribute this situation to the homeless’ laziness, not working hard and inactiveness. However, society tends to see the negative places and neglects their positive impression. Therefore, it forms the stigmatization of the homeless, often followed by a series of expulsion and forced removal. In reality, how do the homeless live and how do they coexist with the environment in this difficult environment?
The fourth and fifth chapters, described how the homeless make use of the environment and how they coexist with it. Here an important finding is that the homeless have the same need for space as the ordinary people, but the only problem is where they live now is overlapped with the public space. That is, they live in the public space. The homeless make the public space their residence, and distributing all the equipment of the residence in the environment. The way they searched for a well maintained life is to efficiently utilize the resources of the environment. Living in the public space, the homeless together accumulate life experiences and individually develop many different kinds of life styles. In addition the homeless show their concern and help each other through the mutual interaction. The above findings all reveal the importance of spatial analysis of the homeless.
Subjects
污名
空間性分析
遊民
參與式觀察
homeless
participant observation
spatial analysis
stigma
SDGs
Type
thesis
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