ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that social problems and related policies are socially constructed and that in this process of social construction different views on person and society play an eminent role. The search for causes of homelessness is a very central one in the literature on homelessness. The main reason is that the dominant form of social research contributes very little to our knowledge of excluded population groups. A social problem is a discrepancy between a given reality and a set of standards, a discrepancy that is judged dysfunctional by relevant groups and that is the subject of reduction through collective action. The resulting perspectives are – explicitly or implicitly – structuring theoretical debates, empirical research, policy making, welfare and public opinion and they relate these different types of social action to one another. The distance between the positions and the centres is expressed in terms of differential participation.
