Notions of safety: observing cultural perspectives in a homeless youth hostel

The preservation of a person’s ontological security plays a vital role in the cultural formation of social groups. Using ethnographic data, the following paper demonstrates how young people, who reside in homeless hostels deal with feelings of anxiety and ontological insecurity. The paper argues that within the institutional setting of a homeless youth hostel, norms and values from outside of the hostel are reproduced by residents, to repair their ontological security. Younger residents become confronted with new levels of independence and freedom, which can prompt anxiety, negatively impacting upon their ontological security. It is contended that, to repair ontological security, and counter anxiety, those from similar cultural backgrounds gravitate toward one another and replicate the cultural norms and values to which they are accustomed.