Recognitional Relations and Autonomy-Related Vulnerabilities in a Temporary Accommodation Service for Homeless People

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines a temporary accommodation service for homeless people in Finland. By building on institutional ethnography, it aims to map the relations that coordinate the everyday work and to analyse the potential consequences of these relations for clients’ vulnerability and autonomy. By applying recognition theory, autonomy is considered to be dependent on mutual relations of recognition. The data are based on 8 group and 5 individual interviews with the workers (N = 20) as well as observations. The results show that 1) everyday activities and recognitional relations are tied to the spatiality of the service, 2) the translocal coordination of work tend to produce a not-worth-the-effort mode of action towards clients, and 3) the aims and recognitional responsibilities are mobilized by an accommodating discourse, which partly limits the workers’ professional space. This can potentially leave the clients highly vulnerable in terms of their autonomy.