ABSTRACT
This chapter distils the theoretical contribution and innovations presented in the book. Putting the spotlight on survival sex reveals how certain processes and experiences of homelessness are gendered. This underscores the significance of intimate relationships for young homeless women, and the role these relationships play in managing the structural disadvantage and social exclusion of homelessness. Young homeless women have multiple motives for engaging in intimate relationships and these include: material support; protection from violence; seeking stability and security; and desiring a mutually supportive partnership. The relational framework developed here provides a rich conceptual foundation, which explains the embedding of gendered subjectivities through practices and exchanges associated with homelessness. This disrupts hegemonic concepts of homelessness to reveal alternative experiences and subjectivities that have previously been ignored.
