Homeless and experience: Cultural practices of the homeless in Germany and Turkey

Homelessness is a modern phenomenon, although it has become more visible recently. Since the beginning of modernity, besides the economic problems faced by social subjects, existential tensions have brought the concept of homelessness as a matter of fact. Although it is seen as a result of only economic factors in the first plan, in addition, it is seen that some cultural variables have an effect on homelessness experience. In addition to the level and/or form of integration with capitalism, social solidarity networks, the symbolic meaning attributed to the home space, the ancient relationship established by the state conception with the society suggest that there are dynamics present in the homelessness experience that cannot be seen at first sight. Indeed, within the scope of this study, in-depth interviews with homeless people who experienced Istanbul and Bonn can be revealed urban space economic-political and cultural implications of the subject and has been made a comparative reading in Turkey and Germany case. This research, which aims to describe the cultural experiences and symbolic meaning maps of "homeless" individuals living in the urban space of Istanbul and Bonn, with a exploratory research method, as a starting point, the psychological space and/or traumatic tensions that individuals experience in their daily lives, with all other hierarchy and meaning libraries thinks that feeds homelessness.