Mapping Ruling Relations Through Homelessness Organizing

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorMcKeen, Wendy E.
dc.contributor.authorWithers, A.J.
dc.date.accessioned2020-08-11T12:50:57Z
dc.date.available2020-08-11T12:50:57Z
dc.date.copyright2020-05
dc.date.issued2020-08-11
dc.date.updated2020-08-11T12:50:56Z
dc.degree.disciplineSocial Work
dc.degree.levelDoctoral
dc.degree.namePhD - Doctor of Philosophy
dc.description.abstractPoor peoples organizing can be effective even in periods of neoliberal retrenchment. This dissertation examines ruling relations and the social relations of struggle from the standpoint of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. With political activist ethnography as my central theoretical framework and methodological approach, I conducted field research, interviews and textual analysis of City and organizational documents. Focusing on OCAPs homelessness campaigns, I examine the social relations of struggle in three campaigns in Toronto: a campaign to stop the criminalization of homeless people in a public park by private security, a campaign to increase access to a social assistance benefit for people in emergency housing need, and a campaign to increase the number and improve the conditions of emergency shelter beds. My research demonstrates the active and ongoing research and theorization that anti-poverty activists engage in as well as the practices of delegitimization, excluding critique, testimonial injustice and epistemic violence that ruling relations engage in to counter activist research and theory. Some of this research and theory has regarded both Housing First policy and philosophy and Torontos emergency shelter system which OCAP, homeless people and other advocates have been decrying as unjust and inept for years. This dissertation explicates some of the ways that the City works to delegitimize its challengers and demonstrates the validity of many of the longstanding critiques of the ruling regime. While the City of Toronto has worked to contain homelessness organizing in Toronto, and deployed numerous demobilization tactics to do so, each campaign was fully or partially successful. Full or partial victories were secured by anti-poverty activists through the use (or threat) of direct action tactics.
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10315/37759
dc.languageen
dc.rightsAuthor owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests.
dc.subjectPublic policy
dc.subject.keywordsHomelessness
dc.subject.keywordsChronic homelessness
dc.subject.keywordsHomeless people
dc.subject.keywordsEmergency shelter
dc.subject.keywordsOCAP
dc.subject.keywordsOntario Coalition Against Poverty
dc.subject.keywordsMoral economy
dc.subject.keywordsSocial movements
dc.subject.keywordsDemobilization tactics
dc.subject.keywordsHousing first
dc.subject.keywordsToronto Alliance to End Homelessness
dc.subject.keywordsStreets to Homes
dc.subject.keywordsCriminalization
dc.subject.keywordsGentrification
dc.subject.keywordsSocial assistance
dc.subject.keywordsOntario works
dc.subject.keywordsOntario Disability Support Program
dc.subject.keywordsODSP
dc.subject.keywordsDirect action
dc.subject.keywordsDirect action casework
dc.subject.keywordsDirect action support
dc.subject.keywordsInstitutional gaslighting
dc.subject.keywordsEpistemic violence
dc.subject.keywordsSocial policy
dc.titleMapping Ruling Relations Through Homelessness Organizing
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertation

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Withers_A_J_2020_PhD.pdf
Size:
15.42 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.83 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
YorkU_ETDlicense.txt
Size:
3.36 KB
Format:
Plain Text
Description:
Download

Collections

Social Work

All items in the YorkSpace institutional repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved except where explicitly noted.