Sidewalk

By Mitchell Duneier

Book Overview

An exceptional ethnography marked by clarity and candor, Sidewalk takes us into the socio-cultural environment of those who, though often seen as threatening or unseemly, work day after day on "the blocks" of one of New York's most diverse neighborhoods. Sociologist Duneier, author of Slim's Table, offers an accessible and compelling group portrait of several poor black men who make their livelihoods on the sidewalks of Greenwich Village selling secondhand goods, panhandling, and scavenging books and magazines.

Duneier spent five years with these individuals, and in Sidewalk he argues that, contrary to the opinion of various city officials, they actually contribute significantly to the order and well-being of the Village. An important study of the heart and mind of the street, Sidewalk also features an insightful afterword by longtime book vendor Hakim Hasan. This fascinating study reveals today's urban life in all its complexity: its vitality, its conflicts about class and race, and its surprising opportunities for empathy among strangers.

Sidewalk is an excellent supplementary text for a range of courses:

INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY: Shows how to make important links between micro and macro; how a research project works; how sociology can transform common sense.

RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS: Untangles race, class, and gender as they work together on the street.

URBAN STUDIES: Asks how public space is used and contested by men and women, blacks and whites, rich and poor, and how street life and political economy interact.

DEVIANCE: Looks at labeling processes in treatment of the homeless;
interrogates the "broken windows" theory of policing.

LAW AND SOCIETY: Closely examines the connections between formal and informal systems of social control.

METHODS: Shows how ethnography works; includes a detailed methodological appendix and an afterword by research subject Hakim Hasan.

CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Sidewalk engages the rich terrain of recent developments regarding representation, writing, and authority; in the tradition of Elliot Liebow and Ulf Hannerz, it deals with age old problems of the social and cultural experience of inequality; this is a telling study of culture on the margins of American society.

CULTURAL STUDIES: Breaking down disciplinary boundaries, Sidewalk shows how books and magazines are received and interpreted in discussions among working-class people on the sidewalk; it shows how cultural knowledge is deployed by vendors and scavengers to generate subsistence in public space.

SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE: Sidewalk demonstrates the connections between culture and human agency and innovation; it interrogates distinctions between legitimate subcultures and deviant collectivities; it illustrates conflicts over cultural diversity in public space; and, ultimately, it shows how conflicts over meaning are central to social life.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374527253
• ISBN13: 9780374527259
• Release Date: December 2000
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.14 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Educational look at homelessness

This is very readable and a great look into an aspect of life many of us may not be aware of - homelessness and economic struggles in NYC. Great sociological study.

Inside information about street vendors - a page turner

This is an excellent book -- a page turner. Mitch Duneier allows us a look at the corporate structure of the street vending business through his living and working among the street vendors as well as taped coversations and quotes from the various vendors. We are allowed to meet the vendors and peek into some of the reasons they have become vendors. I have always seen street vendors -- but was unaware of the complexities...

READ THIS!

This book truly moved me! It has thoroughly made an impact since being faced with recent street problems here in Seattle. This book is a Sociological gem written by an articulate compassionate author. Sidewalk is a must read by ALL!

Inside Look at Outsiders

I've rarely read a "participant-observer's" book in which the observer, in this case an already-recognized scholar/sociologist is so manifestly a true participant, and in which the subjects being observed are so alive and active contributors to the book. Moreover, Duneier is a sociologist who can write, and the photographic illustrations not only works of art in themselves but truly illustrative of the community the author...

A "must read"ÿ

his is the best and most readable work of sociology I have ever encountered, a completely unromantic look at poverty. Most impressive to me as an attorney is the way that the author, while arguing that these men are trying to live with standards of moral worth, is willing to look carefully at the evidence which would contradict his claims. Most authors only present the evidence which supports their view. Duneier spends...