From means to occasion: walking in the life of homeless people

Abstract

This article discusses walking by homeless people, who were asked to take photographs of their everyday lives. These individuals walked to take their pictures, and they used their photographs to explain the walking that homeless people do. Stories about photographs taken were used to explain the significance of different modes of walking, as means, as condition and as occasion. Rather than see walking as integral with a kind of method – or ready-made technique – the authors argue that whatever walking ‘is’ emerges in the course of producing (not just analysing) that experience. They suggest that walking tears at the fabric of symbols and voiced conventions to produce traces and dissonances that invite repair – repair through ‘storying’ the journeys made.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This article is based upon research supported by grants from: Suntory and Toyota International Centres for Economics and Related Disciplines; the British Academy; and the Royal Society of New Zealand, Marsden Fund.