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Hiding in Plain Sight: Understanding the Everyday Practices and Challenges of Car Dwellers

Rachael Zehrung, Yunan Chen

TL;DR

This study investigates car dwellers as a population that sits between homelessness and nomadism, using thematic analysis of posts from a large online community to uncover how they infrastructurally manage daily life in small vehicles. It reveals that car dwellers perform continuous infrastructuring to meet basic needs inside and outside the car, leveraging digital technologies to locate safe parking and sustain routines while navigating stigma and safety pressures. The work introduces the notion of car dwelling as a life in between and shows how infrastructural competence can shape identity, suggesting design directions that support knowledge sharing, goal-driven personalization, and navigation in public spaces. The findings have practical implications for mobility and dwelling research and offer design recommendations for technologies that respect diverse identities, resources, and constraints among car dwellers.

Abstract

Vehicle dwelling has increased significantly in recent years. While HCI research has explored vehicle dwelling through the lens of digital nomadism and vanlife, it has largely overlooked the complexities of vehicle dwelling as a form of housing insecurity, as well as the unique constraints of living in smaller vehicles. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of posts and comments from an online community, we examine car dwellers' infrastructuring work to manage daily life under social, spatial, and infrastructural constraints. We further explore the motivations and identity negotiations of car dwellers, whose experiences fall between homelessness and nomadism, and highlight how developing infrastructural competence can shape identity. We discuss implications for future HCI research on mobility and dwelling under conditions of uneven access to infrastructure and provide design recommendations for technologies that better account for car dwellers' diverse needs, circumstances, and identities.

Hiding in Plain Sight: Understanding the Everyday Practices and Challenges of Car Dwellers

TL;DR

This study investigates car dwellers as a population that sits between homelessness and nomadism, using thematic analysis of posts from a large online community to uncover how they infrastructurally manage daily life in small vehicles. It reveals that car dwellers perform continuous infrastructuring to meet basic needs inside and outside the car, leveraging digital technologies to locate safe parking and sustain routines while navigating stigma and safety pressures. The work introduces the notion of car dwelling as a life in between and shows how infrastructural competence can shape identity, suggesting design directions that support knowledge sharing, goal-driven personalization, and navigation in public spaces. The findings have practical implications for mobility and dwelling research and offer design recommendations for technologies that respect diverse identities, resources, and constraints among car dwellers.

Abstract

Vehicle dwelling has increased significantly in recent years. While HCI research has explored vehicle dwelling through the lens of digital nomadism and vanlife, it has largely overlooked the complexities of vehicle dwelling as a form of housing insecurity, as well as the unique constraints of living in smaller vehicles. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of posts and comments from an online community, we examine car dwellers' infrastructuring work to manage daily life under social, spatial, and infrastructural constraints. We further explore the motivations and identity negotiations of car dwellers, whose experiences fall between homelessness and nomadism, and highlight how developing infrastructural competence can shape identity. We discuss implications for future HCI research on mobility and dwelling under conditions of uneven access to infrastructure and provide design recommendations for technologies that better account for car dwellers' diverse needs, circumstances, and identities.
Paper Structure (39 sections, 1 figure)

This paper contains 39 sections, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Related Work
  3. Homelessness and Technology
  4. Mobile Living and Vanlife
  5. Infrastructure
  6. Methods
  7. Data Source
  8. Data Collection
  9. Subreddit Selection
  10. Data Extraction and Processing
  11. Data Analysis
  12. Positionality
  13. Ethics
  14. Limitations
  15. Findings
  16. ...and 24 more sections

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: An overview of the infrastructures inside and outside the car, including the role of different technologies.