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  3. Lister, compter, enquêter sur les mort·es de la rue

Lister, compter, enquêter sur les mort·es de la rue

Making an empirically elusive reality visible.

Research

Context

Since 2003, the Collectif Les Morts de la Rue (CMDR) has been committed to ‘the fight for dignity and recognition for people who have died on the streets’ in France. Its actions include compiling an annual list that forms the basis for a tribute ceremony, conducting a census, and carrying out a survey on the life stories and causes of death of people who are considered ‘homeless.’ These visibility-raising measures combine a political campaign for the right to housing, a stactivist approach to compensate for the state's statistical shortcomings, a scientific study to describe little-known situations, and a moral imperative to fight for human dignity.

Project objective

The aim of this project is to examine how each of these actions works to restore an empirically elusive reality: that of the isolation of vulnerable people living on the streets, their daily invisibility and post-mortem invisibility. We hypothesise that, hampered by the nature of the facts they seek to document and denounce, these measures find their raison d'être more in their practices than in their results.

Methodology

We draw on material gathered over more than two years as a volunteer observer, in a participatory ethnography of epidemiological investigation work.

Partner institution

Collectif Les Morts de la Rue.