David Snow and Leon Anderson show us the wretched face of homelessness in late twentieth-century America in countless cities across the nation. Through hundreds of hours of interviews, participant observation, and random tracking of homeless people through social service agencies in Austin, Texas. Snow and Anderson reveal who the homeless are, how they live, and why they have ended up on the streets. Debunking current stereotypes of the homeless. Down on Their Luck sketches a portrait of men and women who are highly adaptive, resourceful, and pragmatic. Their survival is a tale of human resilience and determination, not one of frailty and disability.
Down on Their Luck A Study of Homeless Street People
About the Book
Table of Contents
Preface
PART ONE INTRODUCTION
1. Studying the Homeless
2. A Grounded Typology of Homeless Street
People
PART TWO LIFE ON THE STREETS: DAILY
ROUTINES AND SURVIVAL STRATEGIES
3. The Subculture of Street Life
4. Wage Labor and Institutionalized Assistance
5. Shadow Work
6. Tenuous Ties
7. Salvaging the Self
PART THREE DYNAMICS OF HOMELESSNESS
8. Pathways to the Street
9. Homeless Careers
Epilogue
Notes
References
Index
Awards
- Scholarly Achievement Award, North-Central Sociological Association
- 1993 Charles Horton Cooley Award, Society for the Study of Symbolic Interaction