The value of homelessness Managing surplus life in the United States

Framed within the historical context of housing insecurity in the US throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, this book asks and then critically answers the question of what it means to be homeless. The author argues that the changing geographies of homelessness as well as the way in which governments and social services have addressed this population have led to what is now termed "chronic homelessness," and that to understand this condition, scholars must look to the social service system itself. Willse (cultural studies, George Mason Univ.) makes a strong case that it is this very system that not only defines and redefines what homelessness is and which services to help homeless individuals get funded, but also, with its highly bureaucratic structure, that it has become an apparatus to manage "surplus life" rather than eradicate homelessness. In this sense, homelessness has emerged in the late 20th and early 21st centuries as a central role of government bureaucracies. A must read for anyone interested in this issue. Summing Up: Essential. All public and academic levels and libraries. --Deirdre A. Oakley, Georgia State University