Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the experiences of crisis among homeless people in Croatia. An analysis of the socio-economic and political context of the post-transition period will be initially discussed as homelessness is a relatively new phenomenon in Croatia that has been largely ignored by researchers and policy makers. Findings show that homeless people are the definite losers of the transition and that this marginalised population in crisis have not been adequately recognised or understood. This study adopts a holistic approach that takes a broad, gendered perspective viewing an individual's homelessness within larger processes in society. It specifically explores and traces the social transformations and crises in personal biographies obtained through ethnographic research involving in-depth interviews with people who sleep at homeless shelters throughout Croatia.