Research Catalog
Hobos, hustlers, and backsliders : homeless in San Francisco
- Title
- Hobos, hustlers, and backsliders : homeless in San Francisco / Teresa Gowan.
- Author
- Gowan, Teresa
- Publication
- Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 2010.
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1 Item
| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Text | Request in advance | HV4506.S355 G69 2010 | Off-site |
Details
- Description
- xxiv, 340 p. : ill.; 23 cm.
- Summary
- Gowan shows some of the diverse ways that men on the street in San Francisco struggle for survival, autonomy, and self-respect. Living for weeks at a time among homeless men--working side-by-side with them as they collected cans, bottles, and scrap metal; helping them set up camp; watching and listening as they panhandled and hawked newspapers; and accompanying them into soup kitchens, jails, welfare offices, and shelters--Gowan immersed herself in their routines, their personal stories, and their perspectives on life on the streets. She observes a wide range of survival techniques, from the illicit to the industrious, from drug dealing to dumpster diving. She also discovered that prevailing discussions about homelessness and its causes--homelessness as pathology, homelessness as moral failure, and homelessness as systemic failure--powerfully affect how homeless people see themselves and their ability to change their situation.
- Subjects
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 315-328) and index.
- Contents
- Urban ethnography beyond the culture wars -- Managing homelessness in the United States -- The street : watch out, San Francisco! Ain't gonna get no peace -- Moorings : some other kind of life -- Word on the street : no one loves a loser -- The new hobos -- Rabble management : like I need more drugs in my life? -- The homeless archipelago : a little room for myself -- The old runaround : class cleansing in San Francisco -- The road to Nowheresville.
- ISBN
- 9780816648696 (hc : acid-free paper)
- 0816648697 (hc : acid-free paper)
- 9780816669677 (pb : acid-free paper)
- 0816669678 (pb : acid-free paper)
- LCCN
- 2010007699
- OCLC
- ocn475453762
- 475453762
- SCSB-8856281
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries