Examine the Argument That Social Identities Are Often Characterised by Inequality Based on Your Reading of Material in ‘Connected Lives’ and the Article the Act.

Communities and Local Government. 2007. An International Review of Homelessness and Social Housing Policy. London

The Social Identity theory (SIT) was proposed by Henry Tajfel. It was then later developed by Tajfel and Turner in 1971 to help them understand inter group relations. The Social Identity theory assumes that individuals strive to improve their self-image by trying to enhance their self-esteem, through social (in and out groups) and personal identities. There are 4 main concepts within the social identity theory all of which will be discussed in the essay.

Social identity: An identity given by connections to other people and social situations. Similar to a personal identity. For example, middle-classed bank manager.

According to the Department for Communities and Local Government the term ‘homeless’ is used to describe households who are threatened with the loss of a roof over their head or unable to continue with their current accommodation. A household is considered homeless if they no longer have a legal right to occupy their accommodation. A local authority has a “homelessness duty” to secure accommodation to “priority need groups” and

21.9% of renter households spend more than 50% of their income on shelter putting them at serious risk of homelessness. (http://www.wesley.ca/cmfiles/Onanygivennight.pdf). As Gaetz, Donaldson, Richter, & Gulliver (2013) reveal the fact in their report ‘The State of Homelessness in Canada 2013’ that approximately 30,000 individuals are counted as homelessness every night. Among them, around 3,000 individuals are found totally unsheltered and spend each night outside on the street, in parks or in an open place without even any shade overhead. Oudshoorn , Ward-Griffin & Berman (2013) say that whenever people are exposed to homelessness for any of the factors, they try to look for service agencies. Naturally, these 10% of total unsheltered homelessness are the result of government’s inappropriate policy to reach them as rest other are somehow managed by different

Understanding how people become homeless is quite difficult as it can be caused by several reasons but generally fall into the two categories of “structural factors” such as unemployment, poverty and benefits issues. The other category is “personal factors” such as drug and alcohol abuse, family breakdown and physical issues as well as mental health problems (Shelter 2007, Butcher et la 2007). The number of vagrant individuals is almost impossible to accurately count due to the wide existence of “hidden homelessness”, who are considered to be homeless but non-existent on the streets or in the official statistic (Crisis 2007).

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) releases yearly data on people receiving assistance, and turned away, from homelessness services. The number of people getting help, and being turned away, has increased over the past three

Government stand on welfare for the period being reviewed will be analyzed with emphasis on funding and delivering quality welfare to the people. Policies made will be analyzed in relation to housing. A brief comparison of policies adopted between labour and the coalition government that took over from it will be done. The responsibility of the local authorities to support, advice and assist anyone that is destitute or threatened with homelessness without financial implications is simplified in the Housing (Homeless person) Act of 2007, Housing Act 1996 and the Homelessness Act 2002 but this is not the case as some vulnerable people do not care for leading to significant increase in homelessness also resulting in social exclusion and discrimination. (DCLG 2016, Alcock & May 2014)

Throughout the years, the definition of homelessness has been interpreted differently throughout different areas of the world. In order to put into perspective as to how much of an issue homelessness

In the material given in Appendix 1, there is an increasing issue of homeless people in England. In 2014, 112,070 people declared themselves homeless in England – a 26% increase in four years.1 How is it possible that so many people have become homeless and how does this affect the UK today?

alcoholics, dangerous, mentally ill) and there is a profound stigma around being homeless (Couch, 2015), while positive characterizations are quite rare (Couch, 2015). Negative correlations to individual incompetence, mainly emanated and influenced by the media (Gaetz, 2009), have gained prevalence over thematic coverage (related to general trends, statistics) (Iyengar, 1990, pp. 22). As a result, media coverage, governments, and most significantly, society, ever-increasingly afflict homelessness with proximate causes such as individual responsibility, not ultimate causes like individual circumstances nor societal failures (rising cost of housing) (Glover, 2004, pp. 24). According to the “Street Health Report,”over three quarters of the homeless claim their economic circumstances as one of the two most important reasons they were homeless (Khandor & Mason, 2007, pp. 4). Additionally, the report concluded that more than half experienced serious depression in the past year and one in three said they had no one to help them in an emotional crisis. Their predicament is only exacerbated by contemporary perspective of homelessness; Hulchanski (2009, pp. 8) states that society condemns homelessness only “to their personal failures” because it is easier and more inexpensive to address when compared to societal issues such as housing, which is given more “priority” than rental or social housing sectors

During the 1970 's, the 1977 Housing (Homeless Persons) Act was broad along. The main aims of this were to clear up and strengthen local authority, meaning their duties towards the homeless in terms of housing, and to effectively transfer all these responsibilities from local authority social services to housing departments. Local authorities were now only obliged to give long-term

Social divisions are one of, if not, the main political concerns within out society today. Policies have been implemented to try and overcome these social issues but as will be discussed and argued in this essay, it is clear that either current government legislation isn’t working, or not enough work is being done locally and in government to tackle the problem. This essay will discuss the social class divide as a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (2010) describes how people living in poverty and who are looked at as members of the lower social class are targets of prejudice and injustice in Scotland. I will focus on the inequalities that exist within these socially constructed groups, such as wealth, health, and

In general we differentiate between two “kinds” of identity. On the one hand there is the so called social identity, which stresses self-interpretation as a member of a certain social group and on the other hand there is the personal identity, which puts it´s emphasis on individuality and distinctiveness. This distinction is widely known as “patchwork-identity”. Both identities are only a subgroup of many different subjectively interpreted identities that everyone of us has innate.

In today’s Western society, self-identity and social roles are important dimensions that are at times challenging to face. Social roles have always been a fundamental part of society and yet as time goes on, it seems to be increasingly difficult to understand. As discussed in class, in the medieval period, people were assigned roles based on family status. In modern days, however, societal roles have expanded and opportunities are endless, which raises the question: Is there more uncertainty about identity in modern society?