Home without a home: a corpus linguistics analysis of discourses surrounding homelessness from 2010-2018

This thesis analyses constructions of homelessness in the UK between 2010 and 2018. Corpus linguistics methods were employed alongside Critical Discourse Analysis to analyse mainstream news discourses surrounding homelessness, homeless charity discourses and Hansard discourses on homelessness. The research looks at definitions of homelessness alongside the dominant definition of homelessness as ‘houselessness’ in mainstream media and how those with power perpetuate reductive definitions which impacts on public understandings of homelessness. Discursive labelling strategies, such as ‘the homeless’, are used by mainstream media to signal a sense of ‘otherness’. These labels demonstrate a negative ideological evaluation of people experiencing homelessness whereas homelessness charities and Hansard discourses are more likely to discuss people experiencing homelessness with reference to their humanity. Analyses of homelessness and causation point towards negative forms of representation which align with government legislation where those experiencing homelessness are responsibilised and pathologised for their individual life circumstances. Homelessness discourses are paradoxical and while personal narratives within homelessness charity discourses appear to provide people experiencing homelessness with a voice, these narratives are not the experiences of people as they chose to portray them. Homeless social networks are created through the commonality of homeless people’s experiences and offer benefits such as logistical and emotional support to maintain a positive identity and survive the hardships of homelessness life. However, homeless social networks are paradoxical in nature because an individual may be re-housed but lack the security and protection that homeless communities can provide. Mainstream media and homelessness charities circulate sympathetic discourses which appear as positive but have detrimental consequences to public opinion surrounding homelessness. The thesis concludes with an examination of The Independent’s homeless veterans’ campaign which draws on paradoxical notions of banal nationalism to create a sympathetic perspective to elicit public donations to assist with the plight of homelessness.