Doctoral Dissertation Research: Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

在过去的几十年里，美国无家可归的面貌发生了变化。如今，年轻人越来越容易无家可归。这篇论文将涉及为期12个月的人种学田野调查，调查对象是无家可归人口中增长最快、研究最少的一个亚群：无人陪伴的无家可归青年。据估计，每年有160-170万年龄在14-24岁之间的年轻人无家可归，没有父母或监护人。本研究旨在从三个方面推进贫困与城市边缘的学术研究。首先，它将更新无家可归者的社会学肖像。其次，它将调查年轻人无家可归与其他几个城市社会问题之间的密切联系，展示无家可归是一个重要但被忽视的因素，与城市贫困的再现有关。这项研究将探索青年无家可归不仅是贫困的结果，也是原因。第三，这项研究将利用无人陪伴的无家可归青年的问题，为美国城市极端贫困的新辩论做出贡献。这项研究将使用人种学方法来了解年轻人无家可归的轨迹；记录无人陪伴的无家可归青少年设法生存并满足其日常需要的技术；绘制他们的社会网络和关系的形式和内容；并绘制他们的机构依恋和联系模式。少年派将在马萨诸塞州的林恩进行为期12个月的人种学田野调查。在过去的五年里，马萨诸塞州无人陪伴的无家可归青年的数量急剧上升(Paci&Amp；Tian 2014)。据估计，有50164名无家可归的学生在马萨诸塞州的高中就读(Paci&Amp；Tian 2014)。Lynn之所以有吸引力，是因为某些城市(如旧金山、西雅图、纽约和亚特兰大)吸引了旅行的年轻人，学者们将他们描述为街头亚文化的一部分(例如，芬克尔斯坦2005；刘易斯2002)。通过将这项研究设在一个较小的城市，PI将避免研究街头生活方式的参与者，而是专注于无家可归者，因为它与城市贫困密切相关。少年派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，还将前往高中。我还将滚雪球般通过无家可归青年网络进行抽样，以接触到更多的潜在参与者。这项研究的结果将传播给多个受众，包括社会学家、政策制定者以及为无人陪伴的无家可归青年工作的个人和组织。

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.