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This article introduces the dossier on homelessness and provides an overview of research on this topc in history, socio-history and legal history since the 1970s, putting it into context – that is, by closely linking history and historiography. In particular, it distinguishes between the founding works on the medieval and modern periods (1970s); the growing interest in the issue, mainly driven by doctors and journalists, in the new socio-economic context of the mid-1980s-mid-1990s; subsequently, the flourishing of studies by sociologists, anthropologists and political scientists (second half of the 1990s), which quickly led historians (1997-2002) as well as legal historians (1996-2005) to become interested; finally, the most recent renewals in the history and socio-history of homelessness since the 2000s, in a context determined by strong sociological and legislative changes.