Ex-Servicemen on the Road: Travel and Homelessness

Abstract

An emerging literature has recently attempted to address the transitory characteristics of the single homeless population. In this paper I contribute to this focus by arguing that one way in which to account for the high mobility of the insecurely accommodated is to focus on its gendered groundings. Drawing on a study of seventeen homeless ex-servicemen, I explore the long-term influence of military-masculine gender ideology in a civilian environment pervaded by disadvantage. The themes of the emotions, camaraderie, alcohol use and ‘freedom from the military’ are discussed within an empirical and theoretical framework. In conclusion, it is suggested that a number of ex-servicemen are both disposed to, and equipped for, a life on the road, and may become ‘addicted’ to travel and fleeting fixedness to place. It is hoped that these comments have a wider generalisability, and may throw light on the deeper underpinnings of movement for homeless (non ex-service) men, a number of whom may romanticise their lives ‘on the open road'.