Vol. 17 No. 33 (2026): Precarious dwelling. Everyday practices, caring relations, and meaning-making processes
Articles

«Two Heads Are Better Than One but They Must Be Good Ones»: Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Social Work With «people Living on the Street»

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  • Andrea Gollini
Andrea Gollini
Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Italy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-17078

Published 2026-08-04

Keywords

  • homelessness,
  • social work,
  • relational social work,
  • caring relations,
  • ethics

How to Cite

Gollini, A. (2026). «Two Heads Are Better Than One but They Must Be Good Ones»: Ethical and Methodological Challenges of Social Work With «people Living on the Street». SocietàMutamentoPolitica, 17(33), 81–93. https://doi.org/10.36253/smp-17078

Copyright (c) 2026 Andrea Gollini

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Abstract

This paper presents a case study analysis focused on an accompaniment process with a person living on the street, developed in a city in Northern Italy. Through the story of Arnold – a migrant man facing housing, employment, and relational precarity – the article examines key ethical and methodological challenges of social work with people who live on the street: managing relational timeframes, negotiating the boundaries between support and control, holding together protection and freedom, and the effort to sustain without substituting, especially when access to rights remains uncertain. The analysis, based on a case study design and on qualitative materials collected throughout the accompaniment process, is interpreted through Relational Social Work and the Poverty-Aware Paradigm. This highlights a form of networking that does not coincide with mere inter-agency coordination, but actively involves the person being supported as a reflective subject and knowledge-holder, while interrogating power asymmetries, access criteria, and everyday practices that may generate stigma or exclusion. The phrase that gives the article its title “Two heads are better than one but they must be good ones” spoken by Arnold during a focus group, encapsulates helping as a relational practice grounded in dialogue and reflexivity, whose effectiveness depends on reciprocity and on the capacity to integrate care and justice, also through advocacy and policy practice.

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