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S. Güntner:
"Towards a Theory of Shelter";
Vortrag: ESA 15th Conference 2021 European Sociological Association, Barcelona; 31.08.2021 - 03.09.2021.

From Lesbos to Lipa, horrifying stories about conditions in refugee camps and shelters reach us every day. They speak about a contradiction that is hard to grasp: Infrastructures of aid that are meant to protect people have an adversary effect and only add additional harm to what already are desperate and destitute circumstances. This contradiction has accompanied the provision of shelter ever since. Reports about bad conditions date back to medieval times and have led to reforms and improvements over time, but seemingly to limited effect.
This contribution tries to shed light on the mechanisms that produce this contradiction. In a first step it elaborates on the shelter as an infrastructure, reflecting on variations in form and materiality. Secondly, and turning to the social life of these infrastructures, it portrays the shelter as an institution. Focusing on structures for persons who are either deprived of their home or who are seeking asylum, it will look at the rationality of provision, eligibility and access. Thirdly, it will discuss the impact of the infrastructure on those who (have to) use it to get by. Criticism of negative effects, referred to as "shelterization", has led to campaigns against shelter and concepts such as "housing first". From such critique, and as the demand for shelter has risen dramatically on a global scale, an urgent question is about alternative forms of institutionalization and design that can turn shelters into what they could be expected to do: sites of protection for the most vulnerable groups.