Cracks in the pavement
Subtitle: social change and resilience in poverty poor neighborhoods
By: Martin Sanchez-Jankowski.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2008
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 487
ISBN-13: 9780520256446; 9780520256750
Subjects: Urban poor -- United States -- Case studies; Inner cities -- United States -- Case studies; Urban poor -- Social networks -- New York (State) -- New York; Urban poor -- Social networks -- California -- Los Angeles; Social change -- United States -- New York (State) -- New York; Social change -- United States -- California -- Los Angeles
Genres: Case studies.
Description: Woven throughout with rich details of everyday life, this original, on-the-ground study of poor neighborhoods challenges much prevailing wisdom about urban poverty, shedding new light on the people, institutions, and culture in these communities. Over the course of nearly a decade, Marťn S̆nchez-Jankowski immersed himself in life in neighborhoods in New York and Los Angeles to investigate how social change and social preservation transpire among the urban poor. Looking at five community mainstaysthe housing project, the small grocery store, the barbershop and the beauty salon, the gang, and the local high schoolhe discovered how these institutions provide a sense of order, continuity, and stability in places often thought to be chaotic, disorganized, and disheartened.--from publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: A theory of life, social change, and preservation in poverty neighborhoods; title: The housing project in institutional perspective; title: The housing project : social change and preservation; title: The mom-and-pop store : the making of a neighborhood institution; title: The mom-and-pop store : the dynamics of social change and preservation; title: Not just a clip joing : hair shops and the institution of grooming; title: Life on the edge : social change and preservation in the hair shop; title: The gang's all here : fathering a bastard institution; title: All in the family : mothering the gang as a bastard institution; title: Whither the neighborhood high school? contending roles and fuctions; title: School business : the dynamics of two production lines.