Utilizing innovative ethnographic research,Swept Up Lives? challenges conventional accounts of urban homelessness to trace the complex and varied attempts to care for homeless peoplePresents innovative ethnographic research which suggests an important shift in perspective in the analysis and understanding of urban homelessnessEmphasizes the ethical and emotional geographies of care embodied and performed within homeless services spacesSuggests that different homelessness scenes develop in different places due to varied historical, political, and cultural responses to the problems faced

Paul Cloke is Professor of Human Geography at the University of Exeter. His research interests are in social and cultural geographies of ethics, rurality, and nature, and he has published widely on issues relating to poverty, homelessness, and social marginalisation.

Jon May is Professor of Geography at Queen Mary University of London. He has published extensively on the geographies of homelessness and is the co-author or co-editor of five books including, most recently,Global Cities at Work: New Migrant Divisions of Labour (2009).

Sarah Johnsen is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Housing Policy, University of York. She has published widely in the field of homelessness and social policy.

Figures and Tables vi

Series Editors' Preface vii

Acknowledgements viii

Abbreviations x

1 Introduction: Re-envisioning the Homeless City 1

2 From Neoliberalization to Postsecularism 22

3 Tactics and Performativities in the Homeless City 61

4 'He's Not Homeless, He Shouldn't Have Any Food': Outdoor Relief in a Postsecular Age 92

5 'It's Like You Can Almost Be Normal Again': Refuge and Resource in Britain's Day Centres 117

6 'It's Been a Tough Night, Huh?' Hopelessness (and Hope) in Britain's Homeless Hostels 147

7 Big City Blues: Uneven Geographies of Provision in the Homeless City 181

8 On the Margins of the Homeless City: Caring for Homeless People in Rural Areas 211

9 Conclusions 241

References 255

Index 274