Scholarly Research on Homelessness

By Alexa Flickinger-Renzi, Megan Mah, Tanya Tariq, Dillon Yee

Colby, L. (2014).

In the article, Dialectic of Unity and Fragmentation in Feeding the Homeless: Promoting Social Justice Through Communication, by Wendy H. Papa, et al., the authors reflect upon how community and communication can promote social justice within the act of feeding the homeless. This research is searching for solutions of these issues while diminishing the gap between the reality and public perceptions of homelessness. This vulnerable group deserves this support to become self-sufficient. Through examining Helping Hands, an organization that feeds the poor and homeless, it begins to create an understanding regarding which types of programs genuinely help the homeless community. Within this community, dialectic theory is examined and a dominant dialectic is identified which will be shown to be a natural occurrence when forming communities.

In the study, they acknowledge that there will be fragmentation within the community; however, that should not be a reason to stray away from helping the homeless community become unified. They use examples of the communicative actions in coming together to prepare and distribute food, organize religious gatherings, and create camaraderie with the poor to provide compassion and support to each other. They recognize that conflicts of ideas will arise; however, that does not mean that as a community that they should stop supporting each other because everyone has a different experience and may come from a traumatic background that may never be mended. Although we wish to have a perfectly unified community it is realistically not possible. As discussed in the article that through dialectic theory there will always be unity and fragmentation because all relationships are interwoven with multiple contradictions; nonetheless, the main point is to acknowledge the issue and continue to include everyone without denying them support and assistance.


The article highlights the issue of wealthier communities that have power to cast aside the poor and can bring about complex problem as how homeless people are represented. The article also include the poor communication the homelessness face. Today, we try to identify and sort homeless individuals into different categories of need in order to pinpoint what resources we deem necessary to provide; however, in doing so, it denies them the right to participate in the social construction of their own identities and potentially leads to further stigmatize the poor as the “other”. As a result, it is important for members who wish to help to participate in the community to hear the point of view from homeless individuals thus allowing them express to their experiences and solutions.


Kevin Wendell, 2011 director of Helping Hands, comments on how these powerful tools can work closely together to combat this fragmentation within communities thus building and boosting social justice and equality. The article’s conclusion states that, “When we promote only unity...we risk perpetuating the status quo rather than interrogating it...we need to transform our cultural conversation about the problem of homelessness through dialogue.” Although, “dialogue can fragment us in ways that highlight differences that may be impossible to overcome. These tensions do not deny the existence of community. Rather, they reflect the full meaning of what any vibrant community is."

Citations:

Colby, L. (2014). Serving line at soup kitchen. Retrieved from https://www.bandwmag.com/galleries/bw/contests/19/categories/43/photographs/72124

Papa, W. H., Papa, M. J., Kandath, K. P., Worrell, T., & Muthuswamy, N. (2005). Dialectic of Unity 

and Fragmentation in Feeding the Homeless: Promoting Social Justice Through Communication. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 13(4), 242–271. http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=ip,cookie,url,uid&db=ufh&AN=19253428&site=ehost-live