Sofa surfing

Residential Trajectories, Configurations, and Experiences in the Grey Areas of Housing Precarity

Abstract

Based on an ethnographic study on informal dwellings conducted in Western Switzerland, this article examines the place, role, and effects of sofa surfing in the residential trajectories of people experiencing housing insecurity. The analysis highlights the diversity of hosting arrangements and their uses, as well as the ambivalences shaping the experiences of those accommodated. Sofa surfing thus provides a privileged vantage point for understanding the heterogeneity of the grey areas of housing precarity.