Bibliometric Analysis of Articles on the Concept of “Homeless” in Social Work with VoSviewer
Cengizhan AynacıThe aim of this research is to make a bibliometric analysis of the articles including the concept of ‘homeless’ in the field of social work. Web of Science (WoS) was used as the database and VOSviewer was used as the data analysis program. The research dataset was created on 15.03.2024. A bibliometric analysis was conducted on 2710 articles within the WoS database, focusing on journals indexed in SSCI, SCI-Expanded, ESCI, and AHCI under the social work category. According to the results of the research, the first article containing the concept of homeless in the field of social work belongs to 1982. The countries with the highest number of publications and citations are the USA, Canada and the UK. The University of Toronto, the University of Denver and the University of Southern California are the institutions producing the most research on homelessness, while the most cited institutions are New York University, the University of Toronto and the University of Denver. These universities lead in homelessness research due to their high volume of published and cited authors. The three most published authors are Ferguson, Bender and Tsai, and the three most cited authors are Shinn, Ferguson and Culhane. Beyond “homelessness”, the most frequently used keywords are “mental health”, “housing”, “homeless youth”, “poverty” and “foster care”. Mental health in homeless people is related to housing support, severe mental illness, trauma, health and social care. The concept housing has strong associations with words such as family, youth homelessness, health, foster care and child welfare. The three most frequently referenced themes in articles are the difficulties experienced by the homeless (housing, mental health, substance abuse, poverty), homeless social groups (homeless children, homeless youth, homeless women) and services for the homeless (foster care, housing support, housing-first, shelter). In the last decade, there has been an increase in interest in foster care services for homeless people (shelter, staircase model and housing-first).
Sosyal Hizmet Alanında “Evsiz” Kavramını İçeren Araştırmaların VOSviewer ile Bibliyometrik Analizi
Cengizhan AynacıBu araştırmanın amacı sosyal hizmet alanında “evsiz” kavramını içeren araştırmaların bibliyometrik analizini yapmaktır. Araştırmada Web of Science (WoS) veri tarama aracı, VOSviewer ise veri analiz programı olarak kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın veri seti 15.03.2024 tarihinde oluşturulmuştur. Bu kapsamda WoS veri tabanında ve sosyal hizmet kategorisi içerisinde bulunan, SSCI, SCI-Expanded, ESCI ve AHCI indekslerine sahip dergilerde yayımlanan 2710 makale bibliyometrik analizle haritalandırılmıştır. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre evsiz kavramını içeren ve sosyal hizmet alanında yer alan ilk makale 1982 son makale ise 2024 yılına aittir. En sık kullanılan anahtar kelimeler “ruh sağlığı” (mental health), “konut/barınma” (housing), “genç evsizliği” (homeless youth), “yoksulluk” (poverty) ve “koruyucu bakım”dır (foster care). Evsizlerde ruh sağlığı; konut desteği, ciddi ruhsal hastalık, travma, sağlık ve sosyal bakım gibi başlıklarla ilişkilidir. Konut/barınma kelimesinin ise aile, genç evsizliği, sağlık, koruyucu bakım ve çocuk refahı gibi kelimelerle güçlü ilişkisi vardır. En çok yayın yapan ve atıf alan ülkeler sırasıyla ABD, Kanada ve İngiltere’dir. Toronto Üniversitesi, Denver Üniversitesi ve Güney Kaliforniya Üniversitesi evsizlik alanında en çok araştırma yayını yapan kurumlar olurken en fazla atıf alan kurumlar ise New York Üniversitesi, Toronto Üniversitesi ve Denver Üniversitesi olmuştur. Bunun sebebi alan literatürde en çok yayın yapan ve atıf alan yazarların bu kurumlarda çalışmasıdır. En çok yayın yapan üç yazar Ferguson, Bender ve Tsai, en çok atıf alan üç yazar ise Shinn, Ferguson ve Culhane’dir. Araştırma sonuçlarına göre evsiz kavramına ilişkin araştırma yapacak araştırmacıların anahtar kelime bazlı tarama yapmaları, en çok yayın yapan ve atıf alan yazarları, ülkeleri, kurumları ve makaleleri incelemeleri önerilmektedir.
“Homeless” is a person who has no home and/or a fixed, regular and suitable place to stay. Homeless people live in streets, terminals, under bridges, hospitals, parks, shelters or with friends/acquaintances (Aynacı, 2024, p. 30). The Arabic term “bîmekân” and the Persian term “hane-harab” are concepts used to describe homelessness, encompassing meanings such as “spaceless” and “dwelling-less” (Ottoman Turkish Dictionary, 2023). European Federation of National Organisations Working with the Homeless [FEANTSA] has classified the homeless according to the criteria of exclusion by dividing them into social, physical and legal dimensions and has described them as “roofless” (çatısız), “houseless/shelter people/secondary homeless” (konutsuz), “individuals living in inadequate” (yetersiz) and/or “insecure housing” (güvensiz) (FEANTSA, 2005). However, there are different types of homeless according to the duration of homelessness (temporary, cyclical and/or chronic homeless), the cause of homelessness (internal and/or external homeless), the characteristics of the homeless (children, youth, women, men, elderly, migrant homeless) and the place of residence (street and/or shelter homeless).
Research on homelessness dates back to the early 19th century. Engels’ (1845) Condition of the Working Class in England is seen as a reference source for homeless people and homeless shelters. In Park, Burges & McKenzie The City (1967), one of the representatives of the Chicago School, homelessness was defined as a social problem. The second half of the 20th century (1960-1970) was the period when homelessness research intensified. In this period, individual inadequacies in homelessness were focused on and social policies for homelessness were developed and public and non-governmental organizations were established (Hope & Young, 1986, p. 170).
Nowadays, many disciplines and professions provide services to disadvantaged and vulnerable groups. Social work, which is one of these disciplines, produces programs to eliminate the problems they experience, increase their functionality and empower them with the services it provides to homeless people (International Federation of Social Work [IFSW], 2014). The fact that homelessness as a phenomenon is a social problem and homeless people as a disadvantaged group are deprived of their rights, their individual and social functionality is weakened and they have to deal with many problems at the same time makes social work relational to homeless people (Çabuk & Atamtürk, 2023, p. 11).
The natural relationship between the homeless and social work requires the examination and criticism of the studies conducted in this field and the dissemination of scientific studies. The aim of this research is to make a bibliometric analysis of the studies on the concept of “homeless” in the field of social work. In this way, it will be revealed how the studies on the concept of homeless have followed a course from past to present. As part of the originality of the research, a search was first carried out in all fields using ‘homeless*’ in the Web of Science (WoS) database, which yielded a total of 27,552 studies. Then, the ‘All Fields’ option was selected and a joint search was made with the words ‘homeless*’ + ‘bibliometric analysis’. Five studies (Mbabil Dok-Yen et al., 2023; Picado-Valverde et al., 2023; Aliyeva, 2020; Calvo et al., 2019; Okano, 2019) were accessed and it was found that these studies were not included in the social work category. The fact that there is no study based on mapping the concept of homelessness within social work as a discipline can be considered as an original aspect of this research. The research questions identified for the data set mapped in order to achieve the main objective of the research are as follows:
1. Keyword analysis:
1.1. What are the most frequently used keywords?
1.2. Which keywords are used together?
1.3. What is the frequency of use of keywords by year?
2. Country analysis:
2.1. Which countries have the most publications?
2.2. What is the publication frequency of countries by year?
2.3. Which are the most cited countries?
2.4. What is the citation frequency of countries by year?
3. Institution/university analysis:
,3.1. Which institutions/universities publish the most?
3.2. Which are the most cited institutions/universities?
4. Author analysis:
4.1. Who are the most published authors?
4.2. What is the publication frequency of the authors by year?
4.3. Who are the most cited authors?
5. Article analysis:
5.1. Which are the most cited articles?
5.2. Which themes did the articles focus on?
In designing the research, the four stages of bibliometric research identified by Öztürk (2021, p. 35) (determination of the purpose, creation of the data set, analysis and visualization, interpretation of the results and findings) were used. The unit of analysis for this research comprises scientific studies retrieved from the WoS database. The dataset of the research was created on 15.03.2024. The following systematic steps were employed to curate the research dataset:
Step 1: The word “homeless” was typed into the WoS search engine and the symbol “*” was added to the end of the word. These symbols are called “wildcards”. With wildcards, suffixes or words that come at the end of the searched words are also included in the search. For example, when “homeless*” was entered into the search engine, words such as “homelessness”, “homeless youth”, “homeless people”, “homeless services”, “chronic homelessness” were also searched.
Step 2: A search with the keyword ‘homeless*’ using ‘All Fields’ and the SSCI, SSCI-Expanded, ESCI and AHCI indices yielded 27,552 results. Within these studies, scientific publications such as articles, books, book chapters, conference abstracts, meeting abstracts were found. When articles were selected from these scientific publications, the number decreased to 21,627.
Step 3: Among the articles, the field of ‘social work’ was selected and the number of 2710 was reached. Those 2710 articles (as of 15 March 2024) were defined as the data set to be subjected to bibliometric analysis. The bibliometric analyses conducted as part of this study were systematically mapped, yielding the following key findings:
- Homelessness as a field of study and homeless people as a disadvantaged group are natural subjects of study and groups in the discipline of social work. Although homelessness studies in social work do not show a regular increase, they have been carried out since the 1980s. Since 2014 there has been a significant increase in research. The increased visibility of homelessness and the increase in the number of homeless people has led to an increase in homelessness research in the field of social work. In particular, the number of research studies on homelessness has increased significantly with the publication of COVID-19 in 2019.
- “Mental health”, “housing”, “homeless youth”, “poverty”, “foster care”, “housing first”, “substance abuse”, “women”, “substance use” and “qualitative research” are the most common keywords used in the studies. Mental health, housing/shelter, substance abuse, substance use and poverty stand out as themes related to the reasons for homelessness and the difficulties experienced by homeless people. Social group-oriented studies of homeless youth and homeless women are studies of a specific group. The frequent use of the word qualitative in research means that qualitative research is more likely to be used in studies of homeless people.
- The frequency of use of keywords varies between years. While the words mental illness, substance abuse, alcohol addiction, children, child abuse, street youth were in the forefront between 2012-2014, the words foster care, shelter and quality of life were used more frequently between 2014-2016. In 2016-2018 there is a trend towards social support, housing and supportive housing. Similarly, in 2018-2020, words such as housing first, permanent housing support, housing insecurity, housing instability and homeless services came to the fore. In particular, the frequent repetition of similar words in the 2014-2020 period shows that housing services for homeless people are often studied. After 2020, homelessness was associated with the words COVID-19, Corona virus, pandemic, and homeless people were mentioned with the topics burnout, secondary trauma stress and food insecurity.
- The countries with the highest number of publications and citations are the USA, Canada and the UK, respectively. The most important reason for the high number of publications and citations in these countries is that homelessness is defined as a social problem and the number of homeless people is high. These countries have contributed to the formation and enrichment of the homelessness literature. In addition, in recent years, there has been an increase in homelessness research in European countries such as Australia, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, Norway and Wales.
- Leading institutions in homelessness research, such as the University of Toronto, the University of Denver, and the University of Southern California, have consistently produced the highest number of publications. The high number of publications and citations of the universities is due to the fact that the authors who have published and cited the most on homelessness work at these universities and the high number of homeless people in the cities where these universities are located. The authors who have published and cited the most on homelessness and the publications produced by universities and the citations they receive overlap with each other.
- The three most cited works are Pecora et al. (2006), “Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care: Results from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study”, Kuhn & Culhane’s (1998) “Applying cluster analysis to test a typology of homelessness by pattern of shelter utilization: results from the analysis of administrative data” and Kendall-Tackett (2002), “The health effects of childhood abuse: Four pathways by which abuse can influence health” (The health effects of childhood abuse: Four pathways by which abuse can influence health”.
- Pecora et al. (2006) focused on the impact of foster care on adult functioning in their study and mentioned that negative foster care experiences can cause homelessness. They emphasized that the two most important components that will prevent homelessness are positive experiences and the ability to have independent life preparation skills. Kuhn & Culhane (1998) focused on the themes of preventive and protective services for the homeless. Accordingly, they emphasized that preventive and resettlement assistance for transient homeless people, temporary housing and residential treatment for episodic homeless people, and supported housing and long-term care programs for chronic homeless people would yield more effective results. Kendall-Tackett (2002) found that childhood abuse puts people at risk of depression and posttraumatic stress disorder, participating in harmful activities, experiencing difficulties in relationships, and having negative beliefs and attitudes towards others, each of which increases the likelihood of developing health problems and are interrelated. The three most cited works focused on themes such as child/youth homelessness and foster care services for the homeless. These themes emerged in line with the most used keywords.
- As a result of the research, it was seen that the most frequently used themes in the analyzed articles were the challenges experienced by homeless people (housing, mental health, mental illness, substance abuse, poverty), homeless social groups (homeless children, homeless youth, homeless women) and services for homeless people (foster care, housing support, housing first, shelter). Especially in the last 10 years, there has been an interest in foster care services for the homeless (shelter, staircase model, housing-first). On the other hand, themes such as recovery from homelessness and formerly homeless people and the number of studies with experimental methods are very few.
