Session 1, 28th Feb 2022
PEOPLE
6 people took part: Barry, Jack, Chris, Joe, Julie, and Vanessa
VALUE
1) What we value
What do homeless people value differently from most people? And ex-homeless people – are there changes in your values that you never forget?
What kind of things are worth more when you are homeless than when you’re not; i.e. what has greater value in the economy of the homeless than in the normal economy?
I'm calling it “worth-dissonance” – the feeling when you see the world valuing a thing very differently from how you value it.
Value more
socks; tampax; a phone; privacy of your personal info (because often the price of being helped is that your privacy is not respected much); cats (because it is much harder to have a cat on the street than a dog); quiet; warmth, shelving (you don't usually have shelves for your stuff in a hostel); a smile instead of suspicion from a shopkeeper; tobacco (it's a currency); a bath instead of a shower; personal space; having an effect on the world; art materials; community (because you learn on the streets how important it is); health.
Value less
status/job stuff (because you know it can be taken away and you will still be you); recognition e.g. for your art work; privately owned stuff e.g. a garden; telly; people's opinions towards me; my opinion towards others; things like gold or diamonds? No, because you know society values them, even if you don't care; £££;
Value different:
A drink; sex (it can be exchanged for safety or for a bed for the night); certain places, I just saw them differently; having a choice e.g. over what I ate or wore (you eat what there is, and wear what clothes you get given, so preferences become less important, or sort of, more important; you still have preferences but they are in theory only); pride (you still have it but you are expected not to); society (you are still part of it but you don't always feel it); family; a roof; depression; loneliness; myself.
2) How is value determined in society??
the Subjective Theory of Value says the value of a thing is not determined by any inherent property, nor by the amount of labour necessary to produce it, but instead is determined by the importance an acting individual places on it for the achievement of their desired ends .
In other words, what matters is how much you personally need it.
IS THAT WHAT’S GOING ON HERE? or is it about valuing what you can’t have? or things you’ve lived without?
Value and price are different – do we see our ideas of value represented in the world? Different people have different ideas of what is valuable, but only some people’s ideas are represented in the world. We can see what those in power think is valuable everywhere we look.
3) Mapping
The things we said we value more cos of homelessness – pick one of them, and look at how do you get that thing? Could you map places where you do and do not find it? as a way of making your value system visible?
4) WHO (rather than what) is valued?
How does society show you that you are/are not valued? When your community values you, how is that demonstrated?
Ideas: Society shows it values you through wages/money; being heard; being allowed to occupy space, physical or not; the way people look at you; your needs being generally known and understood by society; being credited for what you do. We drew some AGREE/DISAGREE SLIDERS on what shows us we are valuable:
Being paid - yes, very important in showing us we are valued. A 9, if we had to score it Being heard - medium importance - maybe a 5. We're quite used to not being heard, and most people go unheard; but we said being able to be heard is a form of freedom. Being allowed to take up space - yes, pretty important, maybe 8.5. We talked about hostile architacture and how homeless people are often pushed out of public space; and we talked about Gypsies and Travellers and how they are often not allowed to take up space, which makes Traveller people feel un-valued. Getting credit and recognition (not money) for what you do - very important, a 9. We said it's a form of payment, so it's the same as being paid money in terms of how valued it makes us feel. Society's views on disability - we said that if society viewed disabled people in a better light, this would have a big effect on how valued we feel. Maybe an 8 in terms of how big a difference it would make. We mentioned how a lot of disabilities are hidden - so the lack of respect affects those of us with a hidden disability, even if others don't realise it is doing so. Equality/diversity - if the world was less prejudiced, the effect on how valued people would feel would be off the scale! Like 20 out of 10.
5) How would you change the economic system?
We finished up the session with a really wide question: if you could change the economic system in any way you wanted, what would you do? The answers:
- It's all about greed now - I would change that. - I'd change who is in charge. All of us, not just some of us. - I'd change the idea that says "I earn £40k so I am worth more than you as a person". - I'd change it to be more towards people just accepting people. - At the moment it's all about money - and oil and fuel. I'd change that - maybe just to make people aware. - I'd change the idea that you have to do anything to deserve the basics, a roof over your head and enough to eat.
6) It's the little things...
A post-script from Vanessa - after the session, walking back, I saw this graffiti just outside Emmaus. It made me smile - but after the discussions we've just had, I started thinking how that's adding value, but the writer has gone completely unrewarded, and probably some people would call it "vandalism" or something...
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