Entanglements of faith: : Discourses, practices of care and homeless people in an Italian City of Saints

• Autores: Michele Lancione
• Localización: Urban Studies, ISSN-e 1360-063X, Vol. 51, Nº. 14, 2014, págs. 3062-3078
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This paper investigates how Catholic-inspired services for homeless people are delivered in Turin, Italy. The purpose is to critically interrogate particular faith-based organisations� moral discourses on homelessness, and to show how they are enacted through practices of care directed at the homeless subject. The paper contributes to the geographical literature on faith-based organisations addressing its shortcomings � namely the lack of critical and contextual focus on faith-based organisations� �love for the poor�. To address this point, the paper takes a vitalist perspective on the urban and introduces the notion of the �entanglements of faith�, which allows an integrated and grounded perspective on faith-based organisations� interventions. The outcomes of the work suggest that these faith-based organisations propose standardised services that, producing particular assemblages and affective atmospheres, have deep emotional and relational effects on their recipients. Further lines of research are sketched in the conclusions.