| Abstract: | Using audio, video, and radio interviews, the Cleveland HomelessOral History Project (CHOHP) has sought to foster the developmentof a collaborative analysis of homelessness from the bottomup. Designed to overcome problems with traditional academicresearch on homelessness, CHOHP explicitly seeks to share researchwith those living on the streets and in the shelters in Cleveland,Ohio and involve homeless people in the process of analysis.Rather than focusing on the personal pathologies of the homeless,the analysis that emerges from CHOHP suggests that trends indowntown and neighborhood real estate development, the criminalizationof the poor, the growth of the temporary labor industry, andthe retrenchment of the welfare system have led to the emergenceof powerful interests invested in perpetuating homelessness. Beyond analyzing these trends, CHOHP's formal research settinghas emboldened homeless people to act and become agents forsocial change. |
