Description
Book SynopsisIn the tradition of Pierre Bourdieu's The Weight of the World, an award-winning sociologist and his students explore the lives of people working at the bottom of the social order in one of America's most economically segregated cities.
Trade Review"Sociologist Auyero and his graduate students at the University of Texas at Austin deliver exceptional in-depth longitudinal studies of 11 people living in precarious social and economic conditions in their city…Lucid and empathetic, these insightful portraits reveal how life histories are intertwined with political and economic forces beyond any individual’s control." * Publishers Weekly, starred review *
"Engaging and accessible, the essays dovetail with today’s debates on social inequality and immigration. A scholarly study conducted with dignity and thoroughness." * Kirkus Reviews *
"These intimate, uniformly affecting profiles reveal how thoroughly Texas’s historic disregard for fair labor practices and basic social services pervades the lives of today’s working poor." * Texas Monthly *
"…serves as a testament to the value, continued relevance, and vital results of the application of the sociological imagination in efforts to better understand in context the diverse array of human lives that keep a metropolis humming, as well as a reminder of the costs to those who are pushed to the side as cities pursue economic development and experience rapid change."
* Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare *
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: Know Them Well (Javier Auyero)
- 1. Austin, Texas, in Sociohistorical Context (Maggie Tate)
- 2. Santos: The Gold Hunter (Jacinto Cuvi)
- 3. Clarissa: “A Woman Who Fell on Hard Times” (Kristine Kilanski)
- 4. Inés: Discipline, Surveillance, and Mothering in the Margins (Jessica Dunning-Lozano)
- 5. Chip: The Cost(s) of Chasing the American Dream (Eric Enrique Borja)
- 6. Raven: “The Difference between a Cocktail Waitress and a Stripper? Two Weeks” (Caitlyn Collins)
- 7. Kumar: Driving in the Nighttime (Katherine Jensen)
- 8. Ethan: A Product of the Service Industry (Katherine Sobering)
- 9. Keith: A Musician at the Margins (Amias Maldonado)
- 10. Xiomara: Working toward Home (Jennifer Scott)
- 11. Ella: Fighting to Save a Few (Pamela Neumann)
- 12. Manuel: The Luxury of Defending Yourself (Marcos Pérez)
- Afterword: Plumbing the Social Underbelly of the Dual City (Loïc Wacquant)
