Society through the eyes of marginalisation: the physical and mental spaces of homeless people in LjubljanaCibaité, Vaiva (Avtor) Muršič, Rajko (Mentor) Buchowski, Michał (Komentor) cultural and social anthropologymarginalisationhomelessnessLjubljanaangerrejectiontrustthe “other”independenceThe thesis intends to discover what factors influence marginalisation, how the marginalised one deals with marginalisation while unfolding physical and mental space in relation to the housed individual, and discover, what societal flaws might emerge through marginalised persons' approach to society. In this case, a marginalised person is represented by a homeless person in Ljubljana. The research is based on various sources of literature as well as on fieldwork. I based my fieldwork mainly on participant observation approaches, engaging in informal conversations, and conducting non-structured ethnographic interviews, as well as semi-structured formal interviews. As my fieldwork site, I chose Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, and conducted it between the spring of 2021 and the spring of 2024, varying intensity at different times.  While inspecting how marginalisation happens, in this case, why homelessness happens, I present the definition of homelessness and the most common causes of homelessness too. While inspecting the homeless strategy in Slovenia, it becomes clear that part of the reason is also hidden within certain systematic flaws. Slovenia lacks an official number of homeless people in the country, which causes difficulties in tracking what kind of help is needed. The country is also facing struggles while solving the housing issue due to unfulfilled strategy plans and private investors' uninterest in investing in social housing due to the possibility of low returns on investment. Here one leads to another — an unclear definition and number of homeless people causes unfulfilled homeless and housing strategies and, an unclear view of how much help is needed.  On the other hand, in Slovenia, there are also multiple well-functioning non-governmental organisations (NGOs) providing support for people experiencing homelessness. The support for homeless people is dominated by NGO’s, while the government's help could be more constructed.    After entering the fieldwork, the emotion that I experienced the most coming from people experiencing homelessness was bursts of anger. After facing it in the field and reading various literature, it became clear that anger is the result of marginalisation, or otherwise, rejection, that a homeless person experiences in society. Meaning that if someone feels rejected, that might often mean that they are going to mirror it and reject too. Anger also plays a role in keeping your pride and providing energy to move forward and fight for yourself. A homeless person is usually angry at the government, system, housed individuals, and family members that reject them. Experience of rejection and anger leads to difficulties in maintaining trust. Within the people experiencing homelessness, mistrust unfolds on many levels, such as not trusting the government, system, people surrounding them, and themselves as well. A homeless person also often experience mistrust the other way around — from their family members, from government institutions, and housed individuals. During the fieldwork, I was also often encouraged by homeless people not to trust anyone. Anger, rejection, and mistrust lead marginalised persons to open up space around themselves differently than a housed individual would do — both mentally and physically. Both ways intertwine with each other, and a person experiencing homelessness, while searching for their independent ways of thinking and rejecting society, unfolds urban space, in this case, urban space in Ljubljana, differently than a house individual would do.  The search for independent ways of living unfolds through one’s perception of mainstream society and not letting anyone influence it, rejecting help that in some way might control the freedom and exhausting oneself physically rather than stepping on one’s pride. Physically, homeless persons appear to be in search of a safe space where they can hang out and are not bothered by anyone. A marginalised person often faces rejection from the public urban space, which is often created to satisfy consumers' needs. Those who do not have money are expected to be on the margins, and to some degree, not all public spaces are accessible to everyone. Due to a lack of stable housing, objects and spaces within the urban public space become more personalised than a simple passenger would think. For example, house chores that for the one with the stable housing is just a simple everyday task, for a homeless person, spread around the city, and a concept of a safe space, in some way representing home, spreads around the city in a small department. Organisations providing social support in this case turn into a living room within a public urban space for a person experiencing homelessness, where rejection is not present. It unfolds a big part of how a marginalised person deals with marginalisation — while opening up the space physically and mentally.  That leads to the other side of the barricades — a housed individual. As mentioned before, homeless people experience difficulties going through life easily, not only due to their reasons that pushed them into homelessness but also due to the lack of government support. Another factor that might also in some way influence the government's approach to the homeless issue is a housed individual's approach to a homeless person. Cities and public spaces within them are not constructed for someone who lacks material wealth. The marginalised one is expected to be on the margins of the public urban space, and the general public starts to be seen as the "other," as a stranger in our society. The way “othering” unfolds is expressed also through the laws in our society. Homeless people face rejection not only from a public urban space but also from institutions. It is also present within housed individuals, and it influences the government's approach as well. Through the articles and semi-structured formal interviews, it became clear that a housed individual is often full of prejudices towards a homeless person. Such an approach is present due to a lack of interaction, a tendency to invent things rather than investigate them, and often the only interaction a housed individual has with a homeless person is while offering physical help, such as coins or food. Such an approach creates an image of a homeless person as a stranger, rejects them, and meanwhile leads a person experiencing homelessness to reject society as well. That helps to understand why such anger, rejection, and mistrust are present within the circles of homeless people and why it leads them to search for their own, independent ways of living. The suggestion here is to escape the prejudices and to become closer to the one who is seen as a stranger. It indirectly and directly unfolds certain societal flaws that are hiding within our system and that are easier to spot while looking through the lens of marginalised persons. Anger and mistrust expressed by a homeless person represent the rejection that they experience, and in certain ways, for a homeless person, society unfolds from an “unfiltered” perspective. A homeless person experiences society's flaws from the very bottom of it, facing the threats of capitalism, consumerism, the power of money, and such in the most direct way. First, it suggests that government policies to support homeless people are not being implemented properly, and such failure is greatly influenced by the possibility of low capital returns on investments. Further, homeless persons are being rejected from public spaces, suggesting that some people are more privileged in our society than others. A person experiencing homelessness also faces rejection from a common-housed individual who approaches homeless people as the "others," rejects them, and in such a way also influences how government and institutions treat homeless people. All of it pushes a homeless person to search for different and more independent ways of living, to unfold physical and mental space around themselves from the margins. What creates an even bigger gap between a housed individual and a homeless person and what divides our society even more.20242025-01-25 07:45:21Magistrsko delo/naloga166802VisID: 579762sl