"Doing what we can with what we have": Examining the role of local government in poverty management during the COVID-19 pandemic

Long, Fiona and Evans, Joshua 2023. "Doing what we can with what we have": Examining the role of local government in poverty management during the COVID-19 pandemic. Geoforum 144 , 103812. 10.1016/j.geoforum.2023.103812 Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

With the dawn of the COVID-19 pandemic and concern regarding the subsequent vulnerabilities of houseless populations, countries have sought to adapt and enhance emergency housing policies with a view of better protecting this population. Drawing on the poverty management perspective, this article focuses on local government and its role in managing houselessness during the COVID-19 pandemic. It achieves this by treating local council meetings as sites of problematization, in which the management of houselessness is rationalized and solutions negotiated. We transcribed local council meetings in Bristol, England and Edmonton, Canada, for an 18-month period from March 2020. Our analysis found that a common set of ‘problem spaces’ - systems, strategic opportunism and power - were evoked by municipal officials in both cities. Under the umbrella of ‘doing what we can’, local councils: conceptualized houselessness as complex and systemic; identified what does and does not work; discussed jurisdictional limitations and their impact; and defended new forms of accommodation. Significantly, despite the discursive desire to ‘build back better’, and a slightly rebalanced poverty management landscape in terms of care and control, local governments alone were unable to end houselessness within the post-COVID city.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0016-7185
Funders:	UKRI/Mitacs
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	6 March 2024
Date of Acceptance:	13 June 2023
Last Modified:	08 Mar 2024 20:26
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/166914

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