The Dictionary of Human Geography

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derived from an intimate interaction between

people and land (cf.cultural landscape),

but it was invariably tied to theregionrather

than the national scale. Thus Nostrand (1992,

p. 214) emphasized how inhabitants come to

have ‘emotional feelings of attachment, desires

to possess, even compulsions to defend’ their

homeland. He was describing an Hispanic

homeland, and cultural-historical geographers

have identified other ethnically based home-

lands within the USA (Nostrand and Estaville,

2001). In the early twenty-first century, how-

ever, in the wake of 9/11, the USA revived the

concept of homeland on a national (and na-

tionalist) scale. The political-cultural affili-

ations of the term were intensified with the

creation of a federal Department of Homeland

Security in 2002. Its actions are directed to-

wardsborder securityand the prevention of

terrorismagainst the USA through advanced

systems ofsurveillance, profiling and the like,

but it is also deeply invested in what Kaplan

(2003) perceptively identifies as ‘the cultural

work of securing national borders’. dg

Suggested reading

Kaplan (2003); Nostrand and Estaville (2001).

homelessness A complex social problem

that, in the most basic terms, is defined by a

lack of shelter in which to sleep and to perform

basic activities such as bathing. The character-

istics of homeless populations vary geograph-

ically. There are distinctions between the

identities and experiences of homeless people

in developed versus less developed countries,

where service-dependent substance abusers

sleeping rough would be an example of the

former, while the latter would be exemplified

by rural–urban migrants occupying squatter

settlements (seesquatting). There are also

variations in homelessness among countries,

stemming from differences in national econ-

omies, welfare policies and so forth.

In developed countries, the diversity of the

homeless people has increased markedly since

the 1970s. For instance, middle-aged white

males, who traditionally dominated homeless

populations in North America, are now

eclipsed numerically by ethnically diverse

women, children, and youth, including

people with mental disabilities, substance ab-

users, victims of domesticviolence, and the

elderly (Takahashi, 1996). While often

regarded as largely an urban issue, homeless-

ness among these groups is also increasing in

rural areas (Cloke, Milbourne and Widdow-

field, 2001). Finally, the break between being

housed and being homeless is neither sharp

nor definitive. Rather, homeless people may

find themselves in a cycle, moving back and

forth between the streets and shelters, after a

prolonged decline from cheap rental housing,

through living with friends or family, to shel-

ters and the street. This sequence also hides

many homeless people, contributing to diffi-

culties in counting the population.

The causes of homelessness are a long-

standing topic of debate. Takahashi (1996)

suggests that geographers largely adhere to

structural explanations, which focus on inter-

connections between increased levels ofpov-

ertyand decreased availability of affordable

shelter (Wolch and Dear, 1993). Specifically,

this perspective identifies a combination of the

following factors as crucial to the rise of home-

lessness in developed countries: economic

change, leading to the expansion of low-paid,

no-benefit, insecure service-sector jobs; the de-

cline inwelfare statebenefits exacerbating

economic problems, coupled with other policy

shifts such as the deinstitutionalization of

mental health services; demographic changes,

including changing family structures, the femi-

nization of poverty, and increases in the elderly

population; and the reduced availability of af-

fordable housing, in cities experiencing upward

pressures on rents as a result of aback-to-the-

city movementandgentrification, in subur-

ban and rural areas where prices are also rising,

and in the wider context of decliningstatepro-

visionofsocialhousing.Thestructuralperspec-

tive contradicts other explanations that suggest

that individual failings and vulnerabilities (e.g.

drug addiction, family instability) are the pri-

mary causes of homelessness.

Solutionsand responses tohomelessness and

their implications for social life have been an-

otherfocusforgeographers. Theprivatization

andreorganizationofpublic serviceshashada

compleximpactonthegeographiesofhomeless

people’s lives, as some cycle through institu-

tional settings (DeVerteuil, 2003). Also, public

stigmatization of homeless people and increas-

ingly harsh policy responses to their presence in

public spaces(represented by anti-panhand-

ling ordinances and ‘bum-proof’ benches)

have spurred ongoing investigations and inter-

ventions into questions of homeless people’s

rightsto space (Mitchell, 2003a). em

Suggested reading

Mitchell (2003a); Wolch and Dear (1993).

homo sacer Literally both ‘sacred man’ and

‘accursed man’, homo sacer was a

HOMO SACER

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