Philosophical assumptions about identity, being and belonging have, as is well known, historically been bound together, with their classical nexus being Plato's Socrates, who, because of this, figures as the first philosopher of the city. Especially during moments of crisis, as Socrates' life and death testify, the impulse, both philosophically and politically, even today is to make abject those who appear not to conform to the appropriate ideal identity of what "ought" to be. In the first part of this article, the author considers the philosophical logic of this pedagogy of the city and its cultural context and implications. In the second part, the author demonstrates this pedagogy of the city as a practice, using ethnographic data derived from a study of a homeless couple and their struggle to become a family amidst the homeless community within which they lived.