Erwan Le Méner

Characteristics and health of homeless families: the ENFAMS survey in the Paris region, France 2013

BACKGROUND The objectives were to estimate the size of homeless family population in Paris region, to describe their living conditions and health and to analyse the impact of homelessness on childrens growth and development, which was never investigated in France. METHODS A cross-sectional survey was conducted on a random sample of homeless sheltered families in 2013. Families were interviewed in 17 languages and a nurse took anthropometric measures, blood samples and collected health data from child health reports. RESULTS The population size was estimated at 10 280 families. Half were single-parent female families and 94% were born outside France. Most families had experienced housing instability and 94% were living below the poverty line (828 euros/month). Malnutrition was a major problem: the prevalence of food insecurity was high (77% of parents and 69% of children), as well as anaemia (50% of mothers and 38% of children), overweight (38% of mothers and 22% of children) and obesity (32% of mothers and 4% of children). High rates of depressive disorders were found in 30% of homeless mothers and 20% of children had signs of possible mental health disorders. DISCUSSION These first results highlight the important number of families among the homeless population in Paris region. Families differed from other homeless people regarding social characteristics such as birthplace, single-parent status and residential instability that are likely to influence schooling, social ties, health and access to care. These results demonstrate the need for urgent actions targeting homeless families, in terms of reducing housing instability and providing adequate care, especially for children.

Prevalence of Mental Disorders and Addictions among Homeless People in the Greater Paris Area, France

The Samenta study was conducted in 2009 in the Greater Paris area to estimate the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in homeless people. A cross-sectional survey was performed with a three-stage random sample of homeless people (n = 859), including users of day services, emergency shelters, hot meal distribution, long-term rehabilitation centres, and social hotels. Information was collected by a lay interviewer, using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, and completed by a psychologist through an open clinical interview. In the end, a psychiatrist assessed the psychiatric diagnosis according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD, 10th revision). One third of homeless people in the Paris area had at least one severe psychiatric disorder (SPD): psychotic disorders (13%), anxiety disorders (12%), or severe mood disorders (7%). One in five was alcohol-dependent and 18% were drug users. Homeless women had significantly higher prevalence of anxiety disorders and depression compared to men, who were more likely to suffer from psychotic disorders. Homeless people of French origin were at higher risk of SPD, as well as people who experienced various adverse life events before the age of 18 (running away, sexual violence, parental disputes, and/or addictions) and those who experienced homelessness for the first time before the age of 26. The prevalence rates of the main psychiatric disorders within the homeless population of our study are consistent with those reported in other Western cities. Our results advocate for an improvement in the detection, housing, and care of psychiatric homeless people.

Debating with Jack Katz on Methodology

Jack Katz, professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, is the author of several works on field work that have left a mark on the study of work (Katz 1982), deviance (Katz 1988), and research on emotions (Katz 1999). His work falls at the intersection of interactionism, inherited from the Chicago tradition, and phenomenological influences (Katz 2013). As he is certainly one of the most original theoreticians of ethnography, it seemed important to add the publication in Method(e)s of “A Theory of Qualitative Methodology: The Social System of Analytical Fieldwork” to the rare French translations of J. Katz. This article initially appeared in the book based on his dissertation (1982), and then in a reference manual on field research edited by Robert M. Emerson (1983). The commentaries included in this issue highlight the objective of this text, where the author proposes to jointly define a method of production and an assessment of field research based on a revised version of analytic induction. As commentators have noted in various ways, his systematic conception of ethnography as based on analytic induction may seem excessively proselyte, if not exclusive from other ways of working (Becker 2002). But we should bear in mind the programmatic scope of his article, which tackles some of the thorniest issues of ethnography. When R. M. Emerson’s reader was published in 1983, ethnography still occupied a marginal place in the world of academia (Emerson 2001:vii). “A Theory of Qualitative Methodology...” proposes to devise qualitative research according to criteria of scientism, adjusted to its own logic and not defined in an exogenous way. This approach sets itself apart from numerous defenses of field research, including certain canonical contributions aimed at legitimizing qualitative research that are too often set in reactions against the objections from survey research, responding point by point but lacking its own specific unity. At first glance, J. Katz may seem to take the same path and refine a “positive” version of field research, patterned on the experimental methods model (Burawoy 2003). But this critique misses the particularity of Katz’s position. He in no way suggests changing the relationship on the ground to bring it closer to experimentation, as analytic induction is a theory of the study process and not a theory on the examination technique. It rationalizes the way in which the ethnographer passes from one site to another, without prejudice to the exercise of field observation and comprehension. In this text, J. Katz examines the classic objections voiced against qualitative research, that is, the representativeness, reactivity, reliability and replicability of observations (the famous 4Rs). Of course he does not give up qualitative research’s claim to correctly represent its subject and to produce analyses that are both reliable and debatable, based on valid empirical observations. But by adopting a realistic position, J. Katz considers the impossibility of qualitative research to respond to the 4Rs in terms coming from quantitative research, where these demands are usually made. That brings him to establish the uselessness of ad hoc probative measures, which are scarcely Méthod(e)s, Volume 1, Nos 1 & 2, 2015, pp 125-129

Pouvoir aller à l’école. La vulnérabilité résidentielle d’enfants vivant en hôtel social

Vivre en hotel social expose a une forte instabilite residentielle et a des demenagements dans des communes parfois refractaires a l’accueil de familles sans logement. La plupart des enfants vivant en hotel vont pourtant a l’ecole. Cet article s’interesse, a partir d’enquetes menees en Ile-de-France, aux consequences de l’instabilite residentielle sur la scolarisation de ces enfants. Leur acces a l’ecole est complique par de frequents demenagements et la longueur des trajets entre l’hotel et l’ecole. La scolarisation constitue neanmoins une ressource essentielle pour faire face aux difficultes du quotidien liees a la vulnerabilite residentielle des familles en hotel. L’ecole constitue ainsi un point fixe dans l’existence mouvementee des familles sans logement.