‘Who counts as a “WHO”?’ Homeless women and geographies of misrecognition in the City of Gothenburg, Sweden

This article takes as its starting point Judith Butler’s demand for us to think through the question ‘Who counts as a “who”?’ It does this through a study of the gendered geographies of misrecognition experienced by the homeless women in the city of Gothenburg, Sweden.

The article draws attention to the fact that the city accommodates homeless women in industrial areas on the outskirts of the city. It is argued here that this is an accommodation strategy which increases these women’s precarity. By giving voice to ten women in homelessness, who at the time of the interviews were temporarily accommodated in four different shelters in the city, the article seeks to contrast the city’s policies on homelessness, gender equality and urban development with these women’s lived experiences.

The analysis draws on Butler’s notion of ‘frames of misrecognition’ as well as Nancy Fraser’s notion of ‘geographies of recognition’. It is argued that political frames of misrecognition work to marginalize homeless women, both socially and geographically, to the extent that some of them feel completely excluded from society.

The article concludes that it is a political responsibility to urgently recognize and address this group’s lived experiences.