Discussion: Sidewalk

What is Duneier's ethnography about? What were your general impressions?

Thesis?

Sidewalk life has changed Greenwich Village because "the concentration of poverty in high poverty zones has produced social problems of a magnitude that cannot be contained by even the most extreme forms of social control and exclusion...for some of these people, the informal economic life is a substitute for illegal ways of supporting excessive drug use" (9).

Theories or concepts?

Borrowed Concepts

• Jane Jacobs, "public character"
• Max Weber, "exercise of influence"
• Elijah Anderson, "old heads"
• Sarah McLanahan & Gary Sandefur, single parent homes and income level
• William Julius Wilson, loss of institutional infrastructures with the relationships between fathers & children

Methods?

Methods employed

• interviews, formal sit-down sessions conducted at cafes or restaurants
• participant observation, working on the sidewalk as part of the informal economy
• subject participation, vendors recording conversations for him

Favorite parts?