The power of encounters among the pavement cracks: care, affect and harm reduction

Abstract

This article presents maps created with the homeless population in Florianópolis, Brazil and aims to create greater visibility for harm reduction (HR) strategies as a form of care provision on the streets. The first scenes draw on discussions during a HR workshop with homeless people, when they had their first contact with the strategy. The mapped scenes are the result of an encounter with Cigana and Alemão, a couple who met each other in the midst of scenes of crack use and, thereafter, through the agency of affect, were motivated to stop using the substance. The maps demonstrate that homeless people invent other ways to find themselves, creating lines of flight as a way of reaffirming their existence and using HR strategies as a form of care provision.