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Homeless Women, Special Possessions, and the Meaning of "Home": An Ethnographic Case Study

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  • Hill, Ronald Paul

Abstract

This article investigates homelessness among adult women, an important and growing subpopulation among the homeless. To examine their situation within a consumer-behavior context, an ethnographic case study of a shelter for homeless women run by an order of Roman Catholic sisters was performed. The study focused on how these women became homeless, the effects of early life experiences on their homelessness, available emotional and financial support, possessions that were lost, maintained, or became available during their homeless period(s), their perspectives on their lives at the shelter and its ability to act as a "home," and their fantasies about home life. Public policy implications and contributions of these findings to the developing literature in consumer behavior regarding the meaning of possessions are discussed. Copyright 1991 by the University of Chicago.

Suggested Citation

  • Hill, Ronald Paul, 1991. "Homeless Women, Special Possessions, and the Meaning of "Home": An Ethnographic Case Study," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 18(3), pages 298-310, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jconrs:v:18:y:1991:i:3:p:298-310
    DOI: 10.1086/209261
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    Cited by:

    1. Andrew Bryant & Ronald Paul Hill, 2019. "Poverty, consumption, and counterintuitive behavior," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 233-243, December.
    2. Srinivas Venugopal, 2021. "Envisioning a community‐centric approach to impact assessments in subsistence marketplaces," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 118-133, March.
    3. Monica C. LaBarge & Martin Pyle, 2020. "Staying in “the works of living”: How older adults employ marketplace resources to age successfully," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(2), pages 742-774, June.
    4. Edirisingha, Prabash & Aitken, Robert & Ferguson, Shelagh, 2022. "Setting up home: The role of domestic materiality in extended family identity formation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1-15.
    5. Jaikumar, Saravana & Singh, Ramendra & Sarin, Ankur, 2018. "‘I show off, so I am well off’: Subjective economic well-being and conspicuous consumption in an emerging economy," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 386-393.
    6. Cheryl Nakata & Elif Izberk-Bilgin & Lisa Sharp & Jelena Spanjol & Anna Shaojie Cui & Stephanie Y. Crawford & Yazhen Xiao, 2019. "Chronic illness medication compliance: a liminal and contextual consumer journey," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(2), pages 192-215, March.
    7. James W. Gentry & Robert A. Mittelstaedt, 2017. "The Rapidly Aging World: Implications For Marketing," Global Business Review, International Management Institute, vol. 18(3_suppl), pages 1-18, June.
    8. Gentry, James W. & Kennedy, Patricia F. & Paul, Catherine & Hill, Ronald Paul, 1995. "Family transitions during grief: Discontinuities in household consumption patterns," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 67-79, September.
    9. Hong, Soonkwan & Vicdan, Handan, 2016. "Re-imagining the utopian: Transformation of a sustainable lifestyle in ecovillages," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(1), pages 120-136.
    10. Lez Trujillo Torres & Benét DeBerry-Spence, 2019. "Consumer valorization strategies in traumatic extraordinary experiences," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 47(3), pages 516-531, May.
    11. Karanika, Katerina & Hogg, Margaret K., 2016. "Being kind to ourselves: Self-compassion, coping, and consumption," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 760-769.
    12. Madhubalan Viswanathan & Robert Alfonso Arias & Arun Sreekumar, 2021. "Extreme exclusion and relative deprivation in subsistence marketplaces: A study in a refugee settlement in Nakivale, Uganda," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(1), pages 87-117, March.
    13. Sujit Raghunathrao Jagadale & Jayne Krisjanous, 2023. "Exploring unheard voices: Best practices in interviewing women prosumers in Indian subsistence contexts," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(1), pages 36-68, January.
    14. Erika L. Paulson & Thomas C. O’Guinn, 2012. "Working-Class Cast," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 644(1), pages 50-69, November.
    15. Martina Hutton & Canan Corus & Joshua Dorsey & Elizabeth Minton & Caroline Roux & Christopher P. Blocker & Jonathan Z. Zhang, 2022. "Getting real about consumer poverty: Deep processes for transformative action," Journal of Consumer Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 56(3), pages 1332-1355, September.
    16. Denise DeLorme & George Zinkhan & Scott Hagen, 2004. "The Process of Consumer Reactions to Possession Threats and Losses in a Natural Disaster," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 15(4), pages 185-199, December.
    17. Ronald Paul Hill, 2020. "Freedom of the Will and Consumption Restrictions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 164(2), pages 311-324, June.
    18. Madhu Viswanathan & Arun Sreekumar & Srinivas Sridharan & Gaurav R. Sinha, 2024. "Addressing grand challenges through the bottom-up marketing approach: Lessons from subsistence marketplaces and marketplace literacy," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 52(5), pages 1279-1300, October.
    19. Vikram Kapoor & Russell Belk, 2022. "‘Pressure creates diamonds’/‘fire refines gold’: Conceptualizing coping capital," AMS Review, Springer;Academy of Marketing Science, vol. 12(3), pages 196-215, December.
    20. Goodwin, Cathy & Mayo, Michael & Paul Hill, Ronald, 1997. "Salesperson response to loss of a major account: A qualitative analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 167-180, October.
    21. Ronald Paul Hill & Daniel Cunningham & Gramercy Gentlemen, 2016. "Dehumanization and Restriction inside a Maximum Security Prison: Novel Insights about Consumer Acquisition and Ownership," Journal of the Association for Consumer Research, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(2), pages 295-313.

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