A Britain that everyone is proud to call home? The bedroom tax,political rhetoric and home unmaking in U.K. housing policy

This paper explores the prominence of rhetorics of home in UK politics. Through the analysis of key prime ministerial speeches, I trace the lineage of home in political rhetoric, paying particular attention to the ways in which the imaginary of the homespace has been moralised through tenure type. The paper examines the ways in which both of the country’s major political parties have utilised rhetoric that places homeliness and homemaking at the centre of citizenship construction and nation-building, whilst simultaneously introducing housing policies that contribute to class-based acts of home unmaking. The final section of the paper examines the case study of the bedroom tax as an example of the power and influence of rhetorics of home. I draw on interviews with social tenants affected by the policy to highlight some of the consequences of the moralisation of the home, and the everyday impacts of home unmaking policies. Conceptually, the paper makes a dual contribution to social and cultural geographies. Firstly, I highlight the need for a stronger dialogue between critical geographies of home and geographies of housing literature. Secondly, the paper utilises home unmaking as an integral, and yet relatively underexplored, means of extending critical geographies of home literature.     

Care and the Lives of Homeless Youth in Neoliberal Times in Canada

Socio-spatial insights from feminist theories of care are examined in relation to the complex, difficult lives of some homeless youth in Ottawa, and their embeddedness within multiple scales of public policy construction and implementation. As lengthy interviews with 78 female and 78 male homeless youth in Ottawa revealed, both care and self-sufficiency figure strongly in these young peoples' lives. It is our contention that care is generally not part of current senior government agendas geared to marginalised youth and that as a result, there is a gap in funding that supports efforts of community organisations who work with homeless youth. We suggest that one way in which to understand this gap is by recognising that senior government programming for marginalised youth is geared problematically to narrowly defined employability issues. Furthermore, we assert that this results in local organisations being left to bridge the gaps between these one-dimensional characterisations and the complex gendered, racialised and situated lives of marginalised youth. In this article, we draw upon our preliminary findings from on-going research with homeless youth in Ottawa to expand on these arguments, in conjunction with theoretical insights drawn from selected ethics of justice and ethics of care arguments. We assert that there are important socio-spatial implications to be considered. Incorporating care into the framework of senior government policies implies that there is an onus not only to provide sufficient funds but also to direct those monies in such a way that the gendered and racialised contexts within which homeless youths are living manifest qualities of both care and justice. This article suggests that the role of appropriately located, multifaceted social services may have a significance that has not been appropriately recognised.

Cuidado y las vidas de jóvenes que faltan viviendas en tiempos de tendencia neoliberalista en Canadá

Se examinen perspicacias socio-espaciales que viene de teorías feministas de cuidado en relación a las vidas complejos y diversas de jóvenes sin hogares en Ottawa y a su fijación (embeddedness) en escalas múltiples de la construcción e implementación política publica. En entrevistas largas con 78 jóvenas y 78 jóvenes que no tienen hogares en Ottawa se revela que el cuidado e independencia se destacan en las vidas de las/los jóvenes. Sostenemos que generalmente el cuidado no es parte de las agendas actuales del gobierno superior que orientan a jóvenes marginalisados, y como consecuencia existe una brecha de financiamiento para apoyar organisaciones que trabajan con jóvenes sin hogares. Sugerimos que una manera para entender ésta brecha es reconocer que los programas del gobierno superior se orientan a cuestiones de empleabilidad limitado. Además afirmamos que resulta que organisaciones locales tienen la responsabilidad para tender puentes entre la brecha de caracterisaciones unidimensional y las vidas complejas, generificadas (gendered), racialisadas, y situatadas de jóvenes marginalisados. En éste artículo utilisamos conclusiones preliminares de investigaciones continuas con jóvenes que no tiene viviendas en Ottawa para extender los dichos argumentos en conjunción con perspicacias teoréticas de argumentos específicos de las éticas de justicia y las éticas de cuidado. Afirmamos que hay implicaciones socio-espaciales importantes que se necesitan tomar en cuenta. La incorporación de cuidada en el marco de las políticas desgobierno superior implica que no solo hay una responsabilidad para aprovisionar financiamiento suficiente sino que dirigir los fondos en una manera en que los contextos racialisados y generificados de las vidas de jóvenes marginalisados manifestan las calidades de cuidado y justicia. Éste artículo sugiere que el papel de servicios multifacéticos que se ubica adecuado tengan una importancia que no se reconocen apropiado.     

Rowing: aspects of the ethnographic and iconographic evidence

L'aviron et les donnees ethnographiques et iconographiques S. McGRAIL AND A. FARRELL Les auteurs exposent les problèmes que soulève l'interprétation des données iconographiques et font quelques suggestions pour appliquer la terminologie de la nage dans ce domaine. Ils présentent aussi, à l'aide d'exemples ethnographiques, diverses méthodes de nage.