(IM)POSSIBILITIES OF CRITICISM IN HOMELESSNESS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v17i3.76789Keywords:
Criticism, Homelessness, PowerAbstract
Using fieldwork based on more than 500 hours of direct observation carried out in a medium-sized Portuguese city, this article discusses how criticism voiced by the homeless disturbs the exercise of power. Many Welfare workers expect that the homeless submit to their decisions regardless of their consequences for the latter’s life changes. Criticism from the homeless disturbs this expectation, forcing Welfare workers to deal with it in some way. Two strategies for dealing with criticism that most clearly illustrate the dominated position of the homeless are to disqualify it and to retaliate against the one who criticizes. In different manners, both strategies annul criticism in a way that contributes to consolidating the expulsion of the homeless from the field of citizenship, leaving them subject to the arbitrariness with which someone else can treat or mistreat them, thus diminishing their life changes.
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