Thoughts on ethnographic experience of the homelessness in Chile

Abstract

Drawing on my ethnographic work with the homeless population in Santiago, Chile, from 2020 to 2022, I offer my reflexions on the research process, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. My aim is to contribute to the debate on homelessness and situated knowledge in our continent by making visible my own process of participation and negotiation of my position in the field as a researcher, as well as the implications of my experience for interpreting the realities of homeless people. For this purpose, I make transparent my positions as a foreigner, domiciled, man and volunteer, in order to question my location of power, privilege and gender, underlining the need to recognize the complexity and tensions inherent to ethnographic work in vulnerability contexts.

In this regard, I advocate for the development of personal ties based on reciprocity, openness and horizontality, as central features of sensitive and engaged approaches. Instead of perpetuating visions of lack or incapacity, these approaches explore practices and meanings from the street context itself. Likewise, I question how important emotions and feelings are in ethnography, as a crucial but often neglected aspect, which could lead to produce ethnographies. This would involve not rendering