Methodological Prologue for an International Comparison of Homelessness

As the Cases of the Philippines, Japan and USA

Abstract

 The homeless have appeared in almost all countries of the world. Its international comparison is just started. This paper aims to examine the international comparison of the homeless methodologically. The homeless are a product of the globalization. This is the starting point of this paper. It has three purposes. First, it is to examine the concept of the globalization. The globalization penetrates through the economic, social and political conditions of each country. Therefore, it has two processes, a general process being common to all countries and an individual process unique to each country. Second, it is to examine the comparative method. The comparison must be structural. Similarities and differences among the plural groups or societies must be identified first, and the meaning of both should be clearly explained. In order to do so, the position and roll of the structural item in the phenomenon must be specified. In addition, the characteristics of each country’s homeless must be brought to the typology of the homeless. Third, it is to examine an international comparison of the homeless, taking the cases of the Philippines, Japan and America. One, to sketch the characteristics of the homeless in each of the three countries, two, to examines the comparative method taking into consideration the discussion in the first half of this paper, three, to summarize the history of the concept of “homeless” in each country and of discussions on the concept, four, to point out the similarities such as the homeless are people who do not have a place to live, as well as the differences, such as the range covered by the concept of who are the homeless. Finally, it is claimed that we need to construct a typology of the homeless and a comparison of the different types of the homeless will be a useful clue to analyze the contemporary society as a whole.