Homelessness and Social Exclusion: A Foucauldian Perspective for Social Workers

Abstract

The present article considers the malleability of the concept of social exclusion as a tool of policy analysis and intervention in relation to homelessness. The article uses Foucauldian concepts of discourse, power/knowledge and surveillance to pose a challenge to the construction of homelessness as a social exclusion, while alluding to the need for researchers, policy and service provision to be more inclusive of the voices of homeless people in the development of both policy and services. The author argues that the concept of social exclusion, which informs major policy initiatives of the Rann Labor Government in South Australia and the Blair Labour Government in Britain, has a primarily rhetorical purpose and obscures both structural contexts and the subjectivities and lived experience of those labelled homeless.

Keywords:

• Exclusion
• Foucault
• Homelessness
• Inclusion
• Social Policy
• Social Work

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Chris Horsell

Mr Chris Horsell, BA(Hons), MEd, BSocAdmin, is currently a PhD student, in Social Administration and Social Work, Flinders University, SA, Australia. He has been employed as a Social Worker with a number of government and non-government homelessness agencies