The Micro‐Politics of Worthy Homelessness: Interactive Moments in Congressional Hearings *

In this article I examine four Congressional hearings to analyze the interactive moments in which Democratic and Republican congressional members converge to affirm conservative, individualistic accounts of homelessness, therein constructing the worthy homeless. While themselves often highly scripted, interactive moments nonetheless help us to locate the symbolic in symbolic interaction. Nancy Fraser's work on the politics of needs interpretation (1989) helps make sense of how oppositional needs claims (claims made that run counter to the extant policy) are delegitimized in the ceremonial affirmation of certain homeless individuals. I draw on the work of Fraser together with that of Harold Garfinkel (1956) and Erving Goffman (1967) to examine the micro‐politics of the hearing process. While Garfinkel concerns himself with “status degradation ceremonies,” I invert his concept, using Goffman's work on deference (1967), to reflect the explicit focus paid by congressional members to interactions I name “status affirmation ceremonies,” or “ceremonial affirmations.” These moments turn our attention to how the rupture from formal proceedings to less ritualized interaction involves the production of moral meaning, in particular the production of the worthy and unworthy poor.