Photoelicitation: a useful tool to investigate management of the vulnerability of homeless women

"Nursing (Her) Storytelling": An Ethnographic Fiction Proposal for Exploring Feminist Health Activism in Spain

The aim of this article is to share theoretical and methodological reflections on a project on feminist epistemologies and health activism. Based on the analysis of 12 life stories and 1 group interview, an approach based on ethnographic fiction is proposed through the creation of a serial story in podcast format. This approach helps in generating emotions to facilitate understanding and awareness of the issues raised and in showing everyday practices as ways of constructing knowledge. It also avoids turning life stories into academic artifacts with little transformational capacity.

Women in a situation of homelessness and violence: a single-case study using the photo-elicitation technique

Background

Violence against women places them in a vulnerable position with regard to homelessness. Although sometimes invisible, women’s homelessness is a complex reality shrouded in dramatic biographies that should be sensitively addressed to avoid revictimization.

Methods

With the aim of understanding the chaotic discourse of homeless women’s experiences of violence, a qualitative single-case study was conducted using the photo-elicitation technique. Data were analyzed in accordance with grounded theory.

Results

The participant’s discourse could be summarized in the following categories: “Living in a spiral of violence”, “Confronting vulnerability and violence”, “Being a strong woman”, “New family networks”, “Re-building mother–child relationships”, and “Nurturing spiritual wellbeing”.

Conclusions

Supporting homelessness women requires an approach that focuses on the prevention of re-victimization and the consequences of violence in terms of physical and mental health. Shelters are spaces of care for recovery and represent referential elements for the re-construction of self.