How does it feel to be a problem? The Diasporic Identity of the Homeless

Muhammed Asadi

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.09.1.04

Authors

Muhammed Asadi Truman State University, USA

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.09.1.04

Keywords:

Homelessness, Capitalism, Culture, Identity, Inequality, Poverty

Abstract

In this paper I uncover the identity response of the homeless to structural constraints that are facilitated through objectively produced and mass mediated culture. After an initial period of “liberation,” physical deprivation leads the homeless to seek institutionalized help. The “homeless” category constructed by the shelter industry absolves the system of blame and obfuscates the systemic roots of homelessness. In their picking and dropping of identities, and negotiations of meaning without any referential space to root themselves in, the homeless reveal to us the cultural tragedy of the present that affects us all due to rapid social change inherent in advanced capitalism.

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Author Biography

Muhammed Asadi, Truman State University, USA

Dr. Muhammed Asadi recently completed his Ph.D. in sociology from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. His dissertation extended C. Wright Mills’ The Power Elite (1956) explanation internationally by incorporating the military and state within Wallerstein’s primarily economistic rendition of the World System. He is currently the Visiting Assistant Professor of sociology at Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, USA.

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