Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures Preface Introduction 1. A Theory of Life, Social Change, and Preservation in Poor Neighborhoods 2. Hosting a Home: Competing Agendas for Life in Public Housing 3. Living Refuge: Social Change and Preservation in the Housing Project 4. Provisions for Life: Making the Mom-and-Pop Store a Neighborhood Institution 5. Taking Care of Business: Social Change and Preservation in the Mom-and-Pop Store 6. Not Just a Clip Joint: Hair Shops and the Institution of Grooming 7. Life on the Edge: Social Change and Preservation in the Hair Shop 8. The Gang's All Here: Fathering a Bastard Institution 9. All in the Family: Mothering the Gang as a Bastard Institution 10. Whither the Neighborhood High School? Contending Roles and Functions 11. School Works: The Dynamics of Two Production Lines Conclusion Methodological Appendix Notes Bibliography Index

About the Author

Martin Sanchez-Jankowski is Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for Urban Ethnography at the University of California, Berkeley. He is author of Islands in the Street: Gangs and American Urban Society (UC Press), among other books.

Reviews

There is much to be learned from this perceptive and thoughtful book... [An] intellectually courageous book that deserves broad attention." Beyondchron "A well-written sociological study ... completely free of academic jargon. Would appeal to the general reader as well as to an academic audience." Multicultural Review