Dignity and Displacement: The Politics of Shelter for Houseless and Displaced Communities

Dignity is a foundational human value and the idea of being human is closely intertwined with the idea of human dignity and human ‘worth’. Dignity is associated with equality, liberty, autonomy, privacy, decent treatment of individuals and communities by society. It is also subject to cultural interpretations and is intertwined with social and community practices and acceptance thus opening the door to more vernacular and intersectional understandings of the term.

Dignity is an important part of how we live including how we are sheltered and housed. For those inhabiting the margins of society, including the poor and the displaced, the creation and sustenance of a dignified life is central. Practices of aid also often signal a concern with supporting the dignity of those being helped, but it is necessary to consider how people are seen to lack dignity, and what and whose standards of dignity are applied and through what practices. This paper takes a transnational approach, drawing together unhoused and displaced communities in a continuum of precariously sheltered subject. It interrogates how not having a form of mainstream shelter, or being dependent on aid for shelter and life creates experiences of indignities for them. Equally the talk focuses critically on the politics and infrastructures of aid and care that exacerbate these forms of indignities.