The Violence of Displacement

Abstract

Identity traditionally is bound up with the idea of origins—with the birthplace, the home, and the family. How is identity fractured by the severing of the connections between notions of self and memories of place? How do homeless people respond to the tearing away of the traditional frameworks of identity? In particular, how do homeless young women make sense of their locatedness within new “spatial stories”? This article explores the meanings attached to home (the private domain) and the street (the public domain) and analyzes the intersection of gender with the definition and management of public and private space. In-depth interviews and ethnographic work with homeless young women in Sydney, Australia's largest city, are employed to illustrate the relationships among space, place, and gender.