Doctoral Dissertation Research: Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

在过去的几十年里，美国无家可归者的面貌发生了变化。如今，年轻人越来越容易无家可归。这篇论文将涉及12个月的民族志田野调查，与无家可归人口中增长最快、研究最少的亚群成员：无人陪伴的无家可归青年。据估计，这一群体由160万至170万年龄在14-24岁之间的年轻人组成，他们每年都无家可归，没有父母或监护人。本研究旨在从三个方面推进关于贫困和城市边缘化的学术研究。首先，它将更新社会学对无家可归者的描述。其次，它将调查青年无家可归与其他几个城市社会问题之间的密切联系，显示无家可归是一个重要但被忽视的因素，涉及城市贫困的再生产。这项研究将探讨青年无家可归不仅是贫困的结果，而且是其原因。第三，这项研究将利用无人陪伴的无家可归青年的问题，为美国城市中极端贫困的新兴辩论做出贡献。本研究将使用民族志方法来了解年轻人走向无家可归的轨迹；记录无人陪伴的无家可归的青少年如何生存并满足他们的日常需求；描绘他们的社会网络和关系的形式和内容；并绘制出他们的机构依恋和隶属关系的模式。PI将在马萨诸塞州林恩进行为期12个月的人种学实地考察。在过去的五年中，马萨诸塞州无人陪伴的无家可归的年轻人数量急剧上升（Paci & Tian 2014）。据估计，马萨诸塞州的高中有50164名无家可归的学生（Paci & Tian2014）。林恩是一个有吸引力的网站，因为某些城市（如旧金山，西雅图，纽约和亚特兰大）众所周知，吸引了学者描述为街头亚文化的一部分的旅行年轻人（例如，Finkelstein 2005; Lewnes 2002）。通过将这项研究定位在一个较小的城市，PI将避免研究街头生活方式的参与者，而将重点放在无家可归者身上，因为它与城市贫困密切相关。PI将通过几个地点招募参与者，包括青少年庇护所、慈善机构、外展组织，一旦开学，还会有高中。我也将通过无家可归的年轻人的网络雪球样接触更多潜在的参与者。这项研究的结果将传播给众多受众，包括社会学家、政策制定者、与无人陪伴的无家可归青年一起工作的个人和组织。

Over the past several decades, the face of homelessness in the United States has transformed. Today, young people are increasingly vulnerable to homelessness. This dissertation will involve 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork with members of the fastest growing and least researched subgroup of the homeless population: unaccompanied homeless youth. This group is made up of an estimated 1.6 - 1.7 million young people aged 14-24 who experience homelessness with no parent or guardian each year. This research aims to advance scholarship on poverty and urban marginality in three ways. First, it will update the sociological portrait of homelessness. Second, it will investigate the intimate ties between youth homelessness and several other urban social problems, showing how homelessness is an important but overlooked factor implicated in the reproduction of urban poverty. The research will explore youth homelessness not only as a consequence of poverty, but also as a cause. Third, the study will use the problem of unaccompanied homeless youth to contribute to emerging debates about extreme poverty in the American city. This study will use ethnographic methods to learn about the trajectories of young people into homelessness; to chronicle the techniques by which unaccompanied homeless adolescents manage to survive and meet their daily needs; to map the form and content of their social networks and relationships; and to chart their patterns of institutional attachment and affiliation. The PI's will conduct 12 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lynn, Massachusetts. Massachusetts has seen a sharp rise in the number of unaccompanied homeless youth over the past five years (Paci & Tian 2014). Estimates suggest that 50,164 homeless students are enrolled in Massachusetts' high schools (Paci & Tian2014). Lynn is appealing site because certain cities (such as San Francisco, Seattle, New York and Atlanta) are known to draw travelling young people whom scholars describe as part of a street subculture (e.g., Finkelstein 2005; Lewnes 2002). By locating this study in a smaller city, the PI's will avoid studying participants in a street lifestyle and focus instead on homelessness as it connects intimately to urban poverty. PI's will recruit participants by approaching several sites, including youth shelters, charities, outreach organizations, and, once school begins, high schools. I will also snowball sample through the networks of homeless young people to reach more potential participants.Findings from this research will be disseminated to multiple audiences, including sociologists, policy makers, and individuals and organizations who work with and for unaccompanied homeless youth.