“They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness
Drawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws’ daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH’s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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SAGE Publishing
2025-07-01
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| Series: | Socius |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251347064 |
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| author | Mitra Mokhtari Carolyn Greene Katharina Maier Marta-Marika Urbanik |
| author_facet | Mitra Mokhtari Carolyn Greene Katharina Maier Marta-Marika Urbanik |
| author_sort | Mitra Mokhtari |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Drawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws’ daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH’s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to exert both punitive control and responsibilization onto PEH’s lives. We show how the daily governance of possessions enhances and reinforces existing strategies of displacement and motion and illuminate how forms of governance tied to the movement of PEH can be simultaneously experienced as both routinized and random when subjectively enforced. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-de27ab805bb846058e63de73fead13b4 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2378-0231 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | SAGE Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Socius |
| spelling | doaj-art-de27ab805bb846058e63de73fead13b42025-08-20T03:28:21ZengSAGE PublishingSocius2378-02312025-07-011110.1177/23780231251347064“They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing HomelessnessMitra Mokhtari0Carolyn Greene1Katharina Maier2Marta-Marika Urbanik3University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, CanadaWilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, ON, CanadaUniversity of Winnipeg, Winnipeg, MB, CanadaUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, CanadaDrawing on interviews with 65 people experiencing homelessness (PEH) in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada), this article examines the role and impact of municipal by-laws’ daily governance of PEH and their possessions. We argue PEH’s possessions are a site of governance that by-law officers use to exert both punitive control and responsibilization onto PEH’s lives. We show how the daily governance of possessions enhances and reinforces existing strategies of displacement and motion and illuminate how forms of governance tied to the movement of PEH can be simultaneously experienced as both routinized and random when subjectively enforced.https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251347064 |
| spellingShingle | Mitra Mokhtari Carolyn Greene Katharina Maier Marta-Marika Urbanik “They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness Socius |
| title | “They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness |
| title_full | “They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness |
| title_fullStr | “They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness |
| title_full_unstemmed | “They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness |
| title_short | “They Stole All My Shit”: A Qualitative Exploration of By-Law Practices and People Experiencing Homelessness |
| title_sort | they stole all my shit a qualitative exploration of by law practices and people experiencing homelessness |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1177/23780231251347064 |
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