Cecilia Hansen Löfstrand received her Ph.D. degree in 2005 with the dissertation The Politics of Homelessness – Local Policy and Practice (written in Swedish). Her main research areas are

• social work with homeless people and victims of crime, and
• the establishment of new (private) actors on “the homelessness market” and on “the security market”.

Her research interests concerns the construction and establishment of social problems in society, social control and regulation, rule violation and rule enforcement/supervision, inclusion v/s exclusion. Currently she is doing research within her post-doc project “Homelessness as business”, which deals with the establishment of a local homelessness market. Private companies with social housing for the homeless as a business idea are competing with well established actors such as the municipality and non-governmental organizations to provide shelter for homeless clients of the local social authorities. Currently she is also conducting research about the private security industry. The work within the industry is analysed in terms of how it contributes to maintaining and/or change of patterns of inclusion/exclusion, social control and rule enforcement/supervision in society.

Research Networks and Activity: Member of the research network Multiple Modes of Policing and Democratic Governance coordinated by professor Abby Peterson, professor Malin Åkerström and professor Liv Finstad.