Sociological Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences invites you to the spring cycle of SOCIOTÉKA
Between Control and Autonomy: How Encampments Influence Capabilities
Caroline Leblanc
This seminar examines encampments as spaces where institutional control and individual or collective autonomy are constantly negotiated. Drawing on doctoral research conducted with people living in encampments, the analysis explores how these environments shape their capabilities. Encampments emerge as spaces that are regulated and shaped by social policies, but can also foster mutual support and self‑organization. Using the capabilities approach, the seminar highlights how interactions with authorities and internal dynamics influence people's freedoms: accessing resources, securing their daily lives and participating in collective life.
Caroline Leblanc is a postdoctoral researcher at the Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Her work is grounded in critical approach to public policies, social practices, and institutional structures that produce and perpetuate social exclusion. She adopts a perspective oriented toward the transforming social systems to improve living conditions and uphold the rights to dignity and safety of people experiencing homelessness. She currently leads a partnership-based research project on mortality among people experiencing homelessness in Quebec, in collaboration with community, institutional, and Indigenous partners. Caroline also works as a homelessness consultant, supporting community and public organizations in meaningful engagement, co‑production of knowledge, and the development of inclusive, rights-based practices that improve living and health conditions of people experiencing homelessness.
Seminar will be held in English.
No registration is needed.
