Catch 22

With the topic of the anniversary of the Blitz dominating many headlines, narratives of the individuals who played a part in the second world war seems in abundance. For example the death of Eileen Nearne of Torquay, Nearne had no known relatives which prompted a search for documents by the council which in turn led to a treasure trove of documents uncovering her life defying the Nazi's as a wireless operator in occupied France. Despite Nearne receiving posthumous recognition, one can't help but feel that she deserved some recognition during her life, furthermore even though governmental documents were found regarding her time during the war such objective data may not carry the emotional attachment more subjective forms of data such as biographical narratives contain, also due to her death aspects of her life may never have been uncovered. The idea of a narrative has long been associated with works of literature rather than sociology. A narrative is seen as a story fact or fictional which recounts an individual's life, popular examples of this include J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye in which the protagonist Holden Caulfield describes his life through a subjective narrative. Narrative forms of writing allows the reader or listener to develop a more precise understanding with the speaker. In fact, narratives can exist anywhere and everywhere, everything we do can be identified and adapted into a narrative; waking up, making the bed, brushing our teeth etc. Toolan (2001) describes how "from such narratives, major and minor, we learn more about ourselves and the world around us", as narratives help us to make sense of the world we live in. Narratives have become an increasingly important part of popular culture, inspiration is drawn from a variety of different narrative sources such as biographies, autobiographies, personal diaries, letters to one another, personal records, and also the stories we pass on orally to one another during our lifetime. It could be argued that oral forms of data, having been recorded and transcribed remain an accurate source of qualitative data as it can be gained at the time of an important incident and is taken directly from the participant, however like all forms of data the true meanings of the text may be lost in interpretation. However under the correct conversational conditions, the participant can become emotionally engaged in the storytelling to the point where they become the storyteller and others become the listeners, the teller shapes the story into a verbal performance, designed for the current context in which they are speaking, e.g. if they are at a noisy party a long-winded story would go largely unnoticed, however if the teller was in a quiet room with only the listeners this would be appropriate. Wengraf (2001) also looks at a particular style of question entitled single question aimed at inducing narrative (SQUIN), it allows for the interviewer to condense all possible questions into one single question thus minimising any interruption and allowing the participant to create the narrative in a way they feel comfortable

For the past year and a half I have been volunteering at a nearby homeless centre in South London called the 999 club, having befriended many of the service users it became apparent to me that causes of homelessness differ greatly and may not be the after effect of a singular event in an individual's life. During my time at the 999 club I have witnessed friendships being made and broken, I have seen people portray extreme sorrow and other extreme elation (natural and drug induced). Despite all of this what has remained consistent is the earnestness and sincerity in the emotions portrayed by the people I have met homeless and housed. According to The Guardian newspaper, the number of people sleeping rough in London has leapt 15% in recent years, although the reasons behind this still remain relatively ambiguous. This study suggests that there may be a positive correlation between leaving an institution and experiencing difficulties in gaining and keeping a house or flat. It also highlights the lack of help and ignorance experienced by the individuals having left an institution, this isolation may also be self-inflicted to an extent as negative experiences within an institution may result in the individual becoming reluctant to seek help.

Individuals without permanent housing seem to slip easily from the societal consciousness in that they are hardly ever appealed to directly, billboard adverts glamorise a more prosperous way of life unreal and unachievable to most people, furthermore in order to register to vote a postcode is needed in order to receive a ballot, therefore people of no fixed abode become a part of a society in which they have little or no political power to vote. Many individuals come to the capital in order to find a better life for themselves however struggle to find a positive opportunity and as a result become destitute, according to Broadway a homeless charity London, containing half of the UK's homeless population, has risen from 2,500 three years ago to 4,000.

One could argue that the isolation a homeless person experiences may make them question society more analytically than most, therefore narratives within the homeless community are particularly beneficial as they serve to preserve the positional viewpoint of the individuals. Although narratives of the homeless remains an untouched subject, many studies focus mainly on the objective; percentage of homeless individuals involved in drug and drink abuse, demographics of homeless people and their ethnic origins. The constant use of statistics as as a dividing factor may widen the gulf between the housed and unhoused as little is shown within such data of the subjective experiences shared by the homeless.

Within social research a fairly new form of subjective data collection has been established, that of the biographical narrative interpretive method which consists of one-to-one interviews between a researcher and their participants, in which the participant is asked open questions to elicit narrative accounts about their lives. Despite the narrative control this method gives the research participant, the method still has a strong purpose and structure, the interviewer is given a dominant role throughout the interview, in administering the questions and steering the topics under discussion. This element of control is beneficial because it allows the main topic of the interview to be referred to. Common misconceptions of homelessness may be laid to rest, for example the idea that sleeping rough is an unforgiving experience. Bill, a regular at the 999 club quotes otherwise in his narrative, after spending eighteen years at HMP Parkhurst for robbery he became homeless after the death of his parents, he describes homelessness as being relatively unproblematic providing that the individual had an adequate knowledge of the are:

"you know, when people say you sleep on the street you must get suicidal or someone will beat you up, but the way i did it was i slept at half six got up at six o clock walked to Greenwich Park, had a wash up there, washed me hair. There's a bloke in the toilet, he's left now and his wife used to do me a cup of tea and sandwiches seven days a week you know? You get to know people, you see i get to know everyone, i used to sit around the pier, lay on the grass and get a suntan, you know it's like living the life of luxury."

Joe, another regular at the 999 club echoes similar views to that of Bill, in that as long as an individual had adequate knowledge of food and shelter, homelessness is pretty easy-going:

"I can't say it was hard, sometimes it wasn't hard you just got on with it, like years and years ago you got loads of handouts but nowadays there aren't many of those, you're lucky if you get one a night... I mainly slept in Charing Cross cos that's where the handouts go, I used to sleep on the Strand, Embankment Park, I slept bare places. I slept in Trafalgar Square but I'd get woken up early in the morning."

However, common assumptions may prove to be true, such as the idea that institutions such as rehabilitation units and prisons are used as places of shelter. Johnny's narrative uncovered his use of rehab for his alcohol addiction as a sanctuary away from the streets:

"I mean the last rehab I went to was because I was sick of being on the streets, I just needed a roof over me head."

Joe again echoes this as he views the prison system as being little more than a way out of the cycle of homelessness:

"It kept me off the streets and I was fed three times a day."

The high frequency of participants willingly reoffending may not be a coincidence, the narratives taken from the 999 club showed that the individuals had all spent at least one period of their lives in an institution, for many homelessness preceded a spell in an institution. Sam describes a catch 22 narrative which may be seen as a cause of homelessness, in that if an individual has to find accommodation without the council's help the issue of money arises. This contradicts Portes et al's theory of specific deterrence, which says that if an offender is punished severely enough 'the experience will convince them not to repeat their illegal act' (2008:76). Therefore in order to gain adequate housing, people are willing to commit crimes for the benefit of being fed, clothed and sheltered. In order to earn money, one must have a job, but in order to have a job one needs a permanent address; how can an individual gain a permanent address with neither a job or help from an outside service?

I feel that Maines (1993) states quite rightly that "we live in a narrative's moment", it seems that nowadays culture can not only be observed objectively, it must also be viewed as a performance in which we perform narratives and storied lives. Scholars in turn spend their whole lives telling stories about their observations in the way other people live their lives, although would the data not be more reliable and valid if people told their own stories? Eileen Nearne's life story shows how unfortunate it is that only when a finite life experience takes place does a persons narrative become important.

Wengraf, T. (2001) Qualitative Research Interviewing. London: SAGE.

D.R. Maines (1993), "Cultural narratives and economic inconsistencies in welfare reform", In Applied Behavioral Science Review, Vol. 1 pp.173 - 178

Toolan, M. (2001) Narrative: a critical linguistic introduction. London: Routledge.

Unknown. (2010) Eileen Nearne. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/military-obituaries/special-forces-obituaries/8009812/Eileen-Nearne.html [Accessed at 17th September 2010]