Wu, Mingdan;
(2025)
Tactics of Survival of People Experiencing Homelessness in London: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography.
Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).
Abstract
In 2024, the UK charity Shelter estimated that 354,000 people in England were homeless, including those living in temporary accommodation, sleeping on the streets, sofa surfing, or classified as statutorily homeless. Homelessness has remained persistent in England for centuries, with London, as the capital, consistently recording some of the highest rates of homelessness. This study examines the tactics homeless individuals develop to survive, focusing on how they navigate institutional regulations, public discourse, and financial precarity in London. I argue that their tactics of survival are both agentive and linguistic, and that studying them provides an alternative narrative to dominant homelessness research, which often centres on pain-based or crime-focused inquiries. Drawing on four years of ethnographic fieldwork, this study develops insights into the meaning-making practices of homeless individuals, examining how they tactically assert their narratives, organise grassroots solidarity, and manage stigma while navigating broader sociopolitical constraints. In these processes, homeless individuals mobilise meaning-making resources to voice their side of stories, enact identities, gain living necessities, and affirm self-worth. This study seeks to expand and refine agency theory by theorising “tactics of survival” as a theoretical lens that captures the nuanced complexities of marginalised communities navigating precarious sociopolitical and economic conditions. By foregrounding the tactical and constrained dimensions of agency of homeless people, this research moves beyond reductionist frameworks that depict homelessness solely through narratives of victimhood, pathology, and criminology. Instead, it offers a more complex and humanising perspective. Ultimately, this study advocates for a more ethically attuned approach to homelessness research—one that acknowledges individuals’ everyday acts of negotiation and adaptation that challenge dominant structures. By doing so, it exposes mechanisms of social control and limitations of welfare policies that affect everyday practices.
| Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Qualification: | Ph.D |
| Title: | Tactics of Survival of People Experiencing Homelessness in London: A Sociolinguistic Ethnography |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © The Author 2025. Original content in this thesis is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) Licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/). Any third-party copyright material present remains the property of its respective owner(s) and is licensed under its existing terms. Access may initially be restricted at the author’s request. |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Culture, Communication and Media |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10216223 |
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