Homelessness and Mobile Communication [electronic resource] : Precariously Connected / by Justine Humphry.

Chapter 1 Introduction: meanings, mediations and models -- Chapter 2 Mobile lifelines in the lives of people who are homeless -- Chapter 3 'Second-class' access: smartphone dependence and the mobile marketplace -- Chapter 4 Bearing the burden: digitisation of government, health and welfare -- Chapter 5 Precarious mobilities: homelessness and digital access in urban space -- Chapter 6 Policing homelessness: 'smart' cities and algorithmic governance -- Chapter 7 Conclusion: Is there anyone home?

This book examines how mobile phones and the internet have become a vital part of the everyday lives of people experiencing homelessness. But the access mobile phones provide is costly, insecure and limited, producing an experience of being precariously connected. Drawing on findings of research conducted with over one hundred young people, families and adults experiencing homelessness in Australia and the United States, this book analyses homelessness as a mediated condition and explores the underpinning processes that shape digital disparities. It contributes to scholarship on mobile communication and inequality, highlighting the digital patterns, issues and difficulties of a group disproportionately affected by service reform and developments in digital citizenship, smart cities and algorithmic governance.