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Sidewalk
An exceptional ethnography marked by clarity and candor, Sidewalk takes us into the socio-cultural environment of those who, though often seen as threatening or unseemly, work day after day on "the blocks" of one of New York's most diverse neighborhoods. Sociologist Duneier, author of Slim's Table, offers an accessible and compelling group portrait of several poor black men who make their livelihoods on the sidewalks of Greenwich Village selling secondhand goods, panhandling, and scavenging books and magazines.
Duneier spent five years with these individuals, and in Sidewalk he argues that, contrary to the opinion of various city officials, they actually contribute significantly to the order and well-being of the Village. An important study of the heart and mind of the street, Sidewalk also features an insightful afterword by longtime book vendor Hakim Hasan. This fascinating study reveals today's urban life in all its complexity: its vitality, its conflicts about class and race, and its surprising opportunities for empathy among strangers.
Sidewalk is an excellent supplementary text for a range of courses:
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY: Shows how to make important links between micro and macro; how a research project works; how sociology can transform common sense.
RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS: Untangles race, class, and gender as they work together on the street.
URBAN STUDIES: Asks how public space is used and contested by men and women, blacks and whites, rich and poor, and how street life and political economy interact.
DEVIANCE: Looks at labeling processes in treatment of the homeless;
interrogates the "broken windows" theory of policing.
LAW AND SOCIETY: Closely examines the connections between formal and informal systems of social control.
METHODS: Shows how ethnography works; includes a detailed methodological appendix and an afterword by research subject Hakim Hasan.
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Sidewalk engages the rich terrain of recent developments regarding representation, writing, and authority; in the tradition of Elliot Liebow and Ulf Hannerz, it deals with age old problems of the social and cultural experience of inequality; this is a telling study of culture on the margins of American society.
CULTURAL STUDIES: Breaking down disciplinary boundaries, Sidewalk shows how books and magazines are received and interpreted in discussions among working-class people on the sidewalk; it shows how cultural knowledge is deployed by vendors and scavengers to generate subsistence in public space.
SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE: Sidewalk demonstrates the connections between culture and human agency and innovation; it interrogates distinctions between legitimate subcultures and deviant collectivities; it illustrates conflicts over cultural diversity in public space; and, ultimately, it shows how conflicts over meaning are central to social life.
Duneier spent five years with these individuals, and in Sidewalk he argues that, contrary to the opinion of various city officials, they actually contribute significantly to the order and well-being of the Village. An important study of the heart and mind of the street, Sidewalk also features an insightful afterword by longtime book vendor Hakim Hasan. This fascinating study reveals today's urban life in all its complexity: its vitality, its conflicts about class and race, and its surprising opportunities for empathy among strangers.
Sidewalk is an excellent supplementary text for a range of courses:
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY: Shows how to make important links between micro and macro; how a research project works; how sociology can transform common sense.
RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS: Untangles race, class, and gender as they work together on the street.
URBAN STUDIES: Asks how public space is used and contested by men and women, blacks and whites, rich and poor, and how street life and political economy interact.
DEVIANCE: Looks at labeling processes in treatment of the homeless;
interrogates the "broken windows" theory of policing.
LAW AND SOCIETY: Closely examines the connections between formal and informal systems of social control.
METHODS: Shows how ethnography works; includes a detailed methodological appendix and an afterword by research subject Hakim Hasan.
CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY: Sidewalk engages the rich terrain of recent developments regarding representation, writing, and authority; in the tradition of Elliot Liebow and Ulf Hannerz, it deals with age old problems of the social and cultural experience of inequality; this is a telling study of culture on the margins of American society.
CULTURAL STUDIES: Breaking down disciplinary boundaries, Sidewalk shows how books and magazines are received and interpreted in discussions among working-class people on the sidewalk; it shows how cultural knowledge is deployed by vendors and scavengers to generate subsistence in public space.
SOCIOLOGY OF CULTURE: Sidewalk demonstrates the connections between culture and human agency and innovation; it interrogates distinctions between legitimate subcultures and deviant collectivities; it illustrates conflicts over cultural diversity in public space; and, ultimately, it shows how conflicts over meaning are central to social life.
400 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
106 people are currently reading
2552 people want to read
About the author
Mitchell Duneier
13 books42 followersMitchell Duneier is an American sociologist currently Professor of Sociology at Princeton University and regular Visiting Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the City University of New York, Graduate Center.
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February 2, 2012
Loic Wacquant, a sociology professor at Berkeley wrote a scathing review of Sidewalk in the American Journal of Sociology, accusing Duneier of sentimentality, and painting an overly sympathetic portrait of the street vendors in Greenwich Village via "three strategies of selective data collection, interpretation and presentation: disconnecting, censoring and skewing." I felt that Wacquant missed the point at times. What Duneier tries to do in Sidewalk is to show us another side of one of the marginalised populations of urban society, a population that we tend to dismiss, ignore, stereotype and avoid, whether out of indifference, fear or discomfort. Working and interacting with street vendors of "written matter" for intermittent periods over the course of five years, Duneier delves into the relationships these men (and one women) share - with each other as competitors, friends, mentors and mentees; with their family members; and with the public. He shows us that what repulses us from the homeless - the public urination, the smell of the unwashed - is oftentimes the result of the constraints imposed by society, rather than choice (or what we might believe to be simply indifference to basic hygiene). What do you expect someone to do when he needs to go to the bathroom but there are no public bathrooms nearby and establishments refuse to let you use their facilities? And why do we feel repulsed by the black homeless guy who gets drunk and gets high, but not the white middle class kid getting drunk and getting high as he and his friends backpack across America, sleeping rough at points along the way? In doing so, Duneier humanises the street vendor and seeks to change our ready stereotypes of these individuals into something more nuanced and three dimensional.
Wacquant's sniping and his criticism - disingenuous at times - undermines his arguments (but that is another story altogether) but he does make a valid point: Duneier does overreach himself at points, romanticising the figure of the street vendor and perhaps painting these individuals who literally inhabit the sidewalk in an overly sympathetic light. Phrases like "I am thinking of the sidewalk. Thank goodness for the sidewalk" (80) seem more worthy of a Mills and Boon novel than an ethnographic study. But overall, Sidewalk was an illuminating read, forcing one to rethink one's ready dismissal and prejudices against the marginalised.
Wacquant's sniping and his criticism - disingenuous at times - undermines his arguments (but that is another story altogether) but he does make a valid point: Duneier does overreach himself at points, romanticising the figure of the street vendor and perhaps painting these individuals who literally inhabit the sidewalk in an overly sympathetic light. Phrases like "I am thinking of the sidewalk. Thank goodness for the sidewalk" (80) seem more worthy of a Mills and Boon novel than an ethnographic study. But overall, Sidewalk was an illuminating read, forcing one to rethink one's ready dismissal and prejudices against the marginalised.
May 19, 2008
I think Sidewalk should be required reading for everyone. Duneier writes a classic ethnology of the sidewalk vendors in New York City. The book is alternately fascinating, touching, funny, and thought-provoking.
Duneier uncovers and explores the dignity of the homeless. He doesn't shy away from issues either. There is an entire chapter on how the unhoused men he embeds himself with manage to go to the bathroom (or rather urinate and deficate, as a bathroom is a luxury not always available).
He allows for many points of view. I.e. one chapter examines the linguistic structure of the one-sided conversations the sidewalk men carry on with the women they cat-call and holler at. The cops have their say as do the owners of the local businesses who see the sidewalk men as competitors.
In the end, however, it would require a very hard-hearted person to not chide themselves the next time they walk past a homeless person begging for changes, averting her eyes and not responding to the simple "hello"s they offer. This book, more than any other I've read, brings the story of the unhoused home - reminding us that they are, indeed, people and that any one twist of fate could see us or someone we love in the same position.
Duneier uncovers and explores the dignity of the homeless. He doesn't shy away from issues either. There is an entire chapter on how the unhoused men he embeds himself with manage to go to the bathroom (or rather urinate and deficate, as a bathroom is a luxury not always available).
He allows for many points of view. I.e. one chapter examines the linguistic structure of the one-sided conversations the sidewalk men carry on with the women they cat-call and holler at. The cops have their say as do the owners of the local businesses who see the sidewalk men as competitors.
In the end, however, it would require a very hard-hearted person to not chide themselves the next time they walk past a homeless person begging for changes, averting her eyes and not responding to the simple "hello"s they offer. This book, more than any other I've read, brings the story of the unhoused home - reminding us that they are, indeed, people and that any one twist of fate could see us or someone we love in the same position.
April 9, 2010
There are a lot of ideas advanced in Sidewalk, but let me focus on the ones that added to my own observations about the homeless and race/class stratification in the urban environment.
One of my friends operated a club at the boundary of our city's "bohemian" entertainment district and a major public housing project. I hung out and helped in various ways during the mid 2000s (when I was in my mid-twenties). In the process, I observed a lot of informal relationships between the business owners and the many unhoused or subsidized men (mostly men) and women who assumed control of the territory in the early morning hours after restaurant closure and before normal business hours.
There were essentially stages of breakage from society that different persons represented. At the bottom of the structure were the drug addicts, prostitutes, and gang members who not only avoided any affiliation with the "formal economy" of the business district, but indeed participated in antagonistic behavior toward it. Next came youths and benign men and women who abused drugs and alcohol but did not engage in violent crime or vandalism and had minimal contact with the district's patrons. But these people tended to drift through common space like ghosts, or stair climbers in an M.C. Escher print. A third tier took a form that is recognizable in Mitchell Duneier's monograph.
There were men who were in various states of societal discordance, but not actually anti-social - in that they did not participate in vandalism or violent crime and sought to interact with the patrons in a way resembling affiliative discourse. Men like D__ (name withheld, for obvious reasons) would be paid a small sum to sweep the sidewalk and pick up litter at the end of the night. In return, he mingled with passersby coming and going in a semi-official capacity as greeter and made sure patrons' cars were not vandalized by people from the neighborhood. Men like G__ would wash windows for a small fee and, like J__, engage in sociopolitical discussions with younger patrons (presumed to be social liberals with an interest in urban issues like police brutality and communal ownership of public space). In many cases, these men had experiences and perspectives that were worth sharing, for those willing to listen and able to separate the fact from fiction. It bears mentioning that any lengthy exchange almost exclusively passed between males. Females lacked some fundamental confidence to engage in any way that could be called (in the parlance of Sidewalk) "affiliative."
Where my experience is different from Duneier's however, is that the men in my city do not engage in any meaningful "informal economy." There is no novel space carved out by municipal ordinances permitting them to sell scavenged or procured goods, and thus no device to transform them into the valuable "public characters" of Sidewalk's Greenwich Village. The closest to this would be the street musicians and performers in the heart of the district. But these people typically came from outside the neighborhood.
The thing that strikes me about the relationship between those who interact with the patrons of the district and the patrons themselves is that understanding, or more specifically empathy, is not reciprocal. I found that the chapter on Conversational Analysis (in which a homeless black man attempts to assert control over a middle-class white woman by using her leashed dog as a point to gain entry to conversation) describes this without pointing it out (or possibly being aware of noticing it at all). When interviewed away from the unhoused man, the dog-walker admits to feeling a kind of "white liberal guilt" over not knowing how to engage with another human being because of the profound divisions in socioeconomic status and race. I doing so, the woman admits to an unwelcome bias and seeks (plaintively, mutely) to compensate by improving her understanding.
However, there's no indication the man felt the same empathy. His efforts to engage in conversation took a more conflict-oriented posture. His idioms asserted traditional male over female control; the author calls disregard for conversational mores "interactional vandalism." Duneier's secondary and tertiary subjects supposedly probed the author for any entry point that might allow them to profit from his naivete or largesse. The two are distinctly different, but it isn't clear the men who sought them differentiated between the nature of a hypothetical source of support.
And this is what I've found too. The men in my city, like D__, exploit "white liberal guilt" or "social romanticism" to establish rapport with a thinly concealed goal of networking new sources for "loans" and handouts. I don't begrudge this fact. I think survival strategies assume profound importance in relation to how closely one lives hand to mouth.
An important fact to note about Sidewalk is that it presents a unique environment. While the author suggests alternate spaces, like Pennsylvania Station in the 1980s and Washington Square Park, his findings of unhoused life there would be fundamentally different than his study of Sixth Avenue. Furthermore, it is my assumption that a study of such a place, particularly Washington Square Park, might not be so fundamentally different than any other given "skid row" of New York City - or Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, or New Orleans for that matter. In this respect, Duneier's study is as specific as the particularly ethnic community in Barbara Myerhoff's Number Our Days.
That said, Sidewalk is utterly fascinating from start to finish. I am particularly grateful for the author's extensive detail of his process and his inclusion of his subjects into the editorial process. The afterward, penned by Duneier's initial subjects (turned colleague) allays any questions about the objectivity of an upper middle class (Jewish) white male toward extremely lower class (often Muslim) black males. I wouldn't go as far as to say this book should be required reading, but it is certain to interest a wide variety of readers and should be snatched up if found on a bookshelf.
One of my friends operated a club at the boundary of our city's "bohemian" entertainment district and a major public housing project. I hung out and helped in various ways during the mid 2000s (when I was in my mid-twenties). In the process, I observed a lot of informal relationships between the business owners and the many unhoused or subsidized men (mostly men) and women who assumed control of the territory in the early morning hours after restaurant closure and before normal business hours.
There were essentially stages of breakage from society that different persons represented. At the bottom of the structure were the drug addicts, prostitutes, and gang members who not only avoided any affiliation with the "formal economy" of the business district, but indeed participated in antagonistic behavior toward it. Next came youths and benign men and women who abused drugs and alcohol but did not engage in violent crime or vandalism and had minimal contact with the district's patrons. But these people tended to drift through common space like ghosts, or stair climbers in an M.C. Escher print. A third tier took a form that is recognizable in Mitchell Duneier's monograph.
There were men who were in various states of societal discordance, but not actually anti-social - in that they did not participate in vandalism or violent crime and sought to interact with the patrons in a way resembling affiliative discourse. Men like D__ (name withheld, for obvious reasons) would be paid a small sum to sweep the sidewalk and pick up litter at the end of the night. In return, he mingled with passersby coming and going in a semi-official capacity as greeter and made sure patrons' cars were not vandalized by people from the neighborhood. Men like G__ would wash windows for a small fee and, like J__, engage in sociopolitical discussions with younger patrons (presumed to be social liberals with an interest in urban issues like police brutality and communal ownership of public space). In many cases, these men had experiences and perspectives that were worth sharing, for those willing to listen and able to separate the fact from fiction. It bears mentioning that any lengthy exchange almost exclusively passed between males. Females lacked some fundamental confidence to engage in any way that could be called (in the parlance of Sidewalk) "affiliative."
Where my experience is different from Duneier's however, is that the men in my city do not engage in any meaningful "informal economy." There is no novel space carved out by municipal ordinances permitting them to sell scavenged or procured goods, and thus no device to transform them into the valuable "public characters" of Sidewalk's Greenwich Village. The closest to this would be the street musicians and performers in the heart of the district. But these people typically came from outside the neighborhood.
The thing that strikes me about the relationship between those who interact with the patrons of the district and the patrons themselves is that understanding, or more specifically empathy, is not reciprocal. I found that the chapter on Conversational Analysis (in which a homeless black man attempts to assert control over a middle-class white woman by using her leashed dog as a point to gain entry to conversation) describes this without pointing it out (or possibly being aware of noticing it at all). When interviewed away from the unhoused man, the dog-walker admits to feeling a kind of "white liberal guilt" over not knowing how to engage with another human being because of the profound divisions in socioeconomic status and race. I doing so, the woman admits to an unwelcome bias and seeks (plaintively, mutely) to compensate by improving her understanding.
However, there's no indication the man felt the same empathy. His efforts to engage in conversation took a more conflict-oriented posture. His idioms asserted traditional male over female control; the author calls disregard for conversational mores "interactional vandalism." Duneier's secondary and tertiary subjects supposedly probed the author for any entry point that might allow them to profit from his naivete or largesse. The two are distinctly different, but it isn't clear the men who sought them differentiated between the nature of a hypothetical source of support.
And this is what I've found too. The men in my city, like D__, exploit "white liberal guilt" or "social romanticism" to establish rapport with a thinly concealed goal of networking new sources for "loans" and handouts. I don't begrudge this fact. I think survival strategies assume profound importance in relation to how closely one lives hand to mouth.
An important fact to note about Sidewalk is that it presents a unique environment. While the author suggests alternate spaces, like Pennsylvania Station in the 1980s and Washington Square Park, his findings of unhoused life there would be fundamentally different than his study of Sixth Avenue. Furthermore, it is my assumption that a study of such a place, particularly Washington Square Park, might not be so fundamentally different than any other given "skid row" of New York City - or Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, or New Orleans for that matter. In this respect, Duneier's study is as specific as the particularly ethnic community in Barbara Myerhoff's Number Our Days.
That said, Sidewalk is utterly fascinating from start to finish. I am particularly grateful for the author's extensive detail of his process and his inclusion of his subjects into the editorial process. The afterward, penned by Duneier's initial subjects (turned colleague) allays any questions about the objectivity of an upper middle class (Jewish) white male toward extremely lower class (often Muslim) black males. I wouldn't go as far as to say this book should be required reading, but it is certain to interest a wide variety of readers and should be snatched up if found on a bookshelf.
February 16, 2008
This book is about street vendors in New York city's Greenwich Village: some who are durg addicts, panhandlers, homeless(or were at some point), etc, in other words, those on the outer crust of society. The book explores their day to day lives, social structure (which, surprisingly, you find is highly refined), relationships, and work. Although it is a textbook, Dunier does an amazing job making it readable to the public... it actually reads much like a novel and you want to find out what happens to each individual... plus, the sociological insight due to years of research (this is a 5-year dissertation) is profound.
If your not interested in sociology, read it to at least familiarize yourself with how these people live and work. We all have preconcieved notions about who the 'homeless bum' on the street is, but rarely do we get a chance to see the humanity behind those labels -- the relationships they have (or ones that are broken), and the financial issues that arise many times out of discrimination and result in drugs and/or violence. Read it to introduce yourself to a world you would otherwise have not known -- at least not on such an intimate level...
and isn't that what great novelists (and sociologists!!) do anyways?
If your not interested in sociology, read it to at least familiarize yourself with how these people live and work. We all have preconcieved notions about who the 'homeless bum' on the street is, but rarely do we get a chance to see the humanity behind those labels -- the relationships they have (or ones that are broken), and the financial issues that arise many times out of discrimination and result in drugs and/or violence. Read it to introduce yourself to a world you would otherwise have not known -- at least not on such an intimate level...
and isn't that what great novelists (and sociologists!!) do anyways?
June 22, 2016
I knew this book would stick with me for a long time and it has. I've shared some of the content with friends and family. I've thought about Duneiers work as I walk the streets of my downtown city.
Read this book and see how it challenges your perspective of homelessness.
Read this book and see how it challenges your perspective of homelessness.
August 19, 2008
This was a pretty cool book...
September 12, 2022
A really fascinating look at the ecosystem of the street vendors on 6th Avenue. Who are these (almost entirely) men? Where do they get and store their wares? How do they preserve their spots? And most interestingly how were they perceived vs. the seasonal christmas tree vendor family. A really detailed and in depth profile of these men.
The premise of this book was to explore how the streets of the Village changed since the time of Jane Jacobs. Reading this 23 years after publication is another layer as the city has changed significantly since Duneier's research, especially in the last few years with the increase in the unhoused population rendering them more visible. Of course the biggest change shortly after this was published was 911. Now I think it's safe to say people aren't giving keys to unknown men, nor are they storing their items in the subway stations.
I loved all of the book, but especially how Duneier sought the input of his subjects, incorporated their feedback and even invited Hakim to contribute an afterword and co-teach a class to truly give him a voice.
The premise of this book was to explore how the streets of the Village changed since the time of Jane Jacobs. Reading this 23 years after publication is another layer as the city has changed significantly since Duneier's research, especially in the last few years with the increase in the unhoused population rendering them more visible. Of course the biggest change shortly after this was published was 911. Now I think it's safe to say people aren't giving keys to unknown men, nor are they storing their items in the subway stations.
I loved all of the book, but especially how Duneier sought the input of his subjects, incorporated their feedback and even invited Hakim to contribute an afterword and co-teach a class to truly give him a voice.
August 23, 2012
I had to read this book as part of my participation in a week-long community service program for my school. One of the events of the program will be a discussion of Sidewalk with faculty and staff, and since Mitchell Duneier is a professor at my school, I think he might be there. If so, that'll be pretty cool!
Sidewalk examines the lives of several vendors, panhandlers, and scavengers in Greenwich Village - mostly poor, homeless, black men - and the social, political, and economic forces that surround them. This was an interesting and enlightening book; I learned about people that the media hardly ever portrays in a positive light. I didn't agree with all of the views expressed in the book, however.
Sidewalk examines the lives of several vendors, panhandlers, and scavengers in Greenwich Village - mostly poor, homeless, black men - and the social, political, and economic forces that surround them. This was an interesting and enlightening book; I learned about people that the media hardly ever portrays in a positive light. I didn't agree with all of the views expressed in the book, however.
August 31, 2011
Great insight into the lives of homeless people in America. It makes me want to go buy books from these homeless people rather than a big chain store. I felt the research and sociological analysis was excellent, and although i was reading this book for a class i greatly enjoyed it. Its good that were able to see things from anouther persons perspective, understanding that these homeless people are still human beings just like us and seeing their lives and histories has changed how ill treat the homeless forever. Very interesting book.
November 6, 2008
A thoughtful look at a part of New York City that many people actively try to ignore. Also a good argument for the effectiveness of a different approach to social science research, in which the researcher is not simply an impartial observer but an active participant who allows the subjects to be involved in determining their own portrayal.
January 9, 2015
This is an amazing book -- a sociological look into a bit of New York street life. Just wonderful.
December 23, 2025
I picked up this book on a whim at a thrift store in Northern Virginia and then, this fall, saw it sitting an urban planning professor’s shelf. While it is an intellectually enriching book, “shit” and “fuck” appear as much or more than words like “ethnography” and “social position.”
An example of a taped conversation between homeless written matter vendors:
"He's trying to understand the people in the street," Mudrick told Marvin, referring to me [Duneier], as I worked with Ron to lift the plastic sheeting off the magazines.
"People don't understand what we're about," said Marvin. "They already think negative about us."
"I don't give a fuck about what nobody else thinks," said Mudrick. "I like what I do. I did it because I liked it."
"But the point is, what I'm saying, what other people is looking upon you as, you not doing anything wrong," responded Marvin.
"I don't give a fuck about nobody else," said Mudrick.
"I'm not saying that," responded Marvin. "I'm trying to say these other people looking at you like you're doing wrong."
"Fuck the other people!" said Mudrick.
"You talking to me wrong!" exclaimed Marvin.
“All we trying to do is make ourselves a couple of dollars," said Mudrick.
"Yeah, but you talking to me wrong!" said Marvin.
Duneier is a humble and self-aware sociologist trying to get across a message that I’m sure was hard to hear in the late 90s: many homeless people are trying their best, especially those who are vending (rather than robbing), and policy should support these kinds of aspirations rather than try to legislate them away. The forced removal of people from Penn Station is one instance of displacing vulnerable populations (mostly homeless Black men) without helping them. These men use a vending loophole (selling written matter doesn’t require a license, freedom of speech) as a means of making an honest living while they’re on the street. Their stories added complexity to my understanding of homelessness and many Americans would benefit from an improved understanding now that homelessness is again at a high in the mid-2020s.
An example of a taped conversation between homeless written matter vendors:
"He's trying to understand the people in the street," Mudrick told Marvin, referring to me [Duneier], as I worked with Ron to lift the plastic sheeting off the magazines.
"People don't understand what we're about," said Marvin. "They already think negative about us."
"I don't give a fuck about what nobody else thinks," said Mudrick. "I like what I do. I did it because I liked it."
"But the point is, what I'm saying, what other people is looking upon you as, you not doing anything wrong," responded Marvin.
"I don't give a fuck about nobody else," said Mudrick.
"I'm not saying that," responded Marvin. "I'm trying to say these other people looking at you like you're doing wrong."
"Fuck the other people!" said Mudrick.
"You talking to me wrong!" exclaimed Marvin.
“All we trying to do is make ourselves a couple of dollars," said Mudrick.
"Yeah, but you talking to me wrong!" said Marvin.
Duneier is a humble and self-aware sociologist trying to get across a message that I’m sure was hard to hear in the late 90s: many homeless people are trying their best, especially those who are vending (rather than robbing), and policy should support these kinds of aspirations rather than try to legislate them away. The forced removal of people from Penn Station is one instance of displacing vulnerable populations (mostly homeless Black men) without helping them. These men use a vending loophole (selling written matter doesn’t require a license, freedom of speech) as a means of making an honest living while they’re on the street. Their stories added complexity to my understanding of homelessness and many Americans would benefit from an improved understanding now that homelessness is again at a high in the mid-2020s.
August 9, 2024
This is my third book on this topic, following those by Jane Jacobs and William Whyte, and I am not disappointed at all. As someone who has never been to New York, it is fascinating to read about the city from this perspective, and it was also intriguing to see what has happened to Jacobs' 6th Avenue over the past 40-plus years.
February 23, 2024
太棒了！关注边缘群体的一定不要错过
February 25, 2020
Sidewalk is a really good ethnography on the lives of street vendors and unhoused people on the streets of New York in the 1990s. The author does a good job in giving the people he researched a true voice in their story and it changes your perspective on those who are street vending and unhoused and makes you understand their circumstances and their thoughts about their situations much more. I personally stray away from ethnographies because they have a history of making normal people seem more “exotic” than they really are but the author was able to be respectful and give a truthful insight into the lives of these people.
The only reason I remove a star is for the section that discusses the interactions between women and these people. I felt it was ignoring the plight of women and the danger of talking to men and instead making it seem as if the women were part of the problem by not wanting to have a conversation with them (this is a heavily paraphrased summary). The author reduced it to white guilt, rather than understand the experience of women and the dangers they face which was unfortunate but not surprising because this is something most people do.
The author also could have spoken to more unhoused women. While he did talk to one street vendor named Alice, it’s unfortunate he didn’t try to find more. He kept on asking “I wonder if other women experience this?” Like dude.... go find someone then.
The only reason I remove a star is for the section that discusses the interactions between women and these people. I felt it was ignoring the plight of women and the danger of talking to men and instead making it seem as if the women were part of the problem by not wanting to have a conversation with them (this is a heavily paraphrased summary). The author reduced it to white guilt, rather than understand the experience of women and the dangers they face which was unfortunate but not surprising because this is something most people do.
The author also could have spoken to more unhoused women. While he did talk to one street vendor named Alice, it’s unfortunate he didn’t try to find more. He kept on asking “I wonder if other women experience this?” Like dude.... go find someone then.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2012
This was a different but interesting book that consisted of different daily life stories of NYC homeless people. What I liked about this book was that it didn't just include the stereotypical bum who smells and begs for money. It included stories from street venders, messengers and some unemployed people who talk about all of the challenges of being homeless. There was one person who would go around to different businesses offering to deliver their products on a bike for free, and making money on the tips given to her by the people she delivered to. What was interesting about her was that she had been homeless for 20 years and still lived the life of most people, except going through the challenge of finding a place to sleep at night. After reading this book I realized how diverse the homeless community is.
July 15, 2007
Despite the intellectual weight and academic heft, Sidewalk is real page-turner, reading more like a great novel than sub-cultural examination. Brilliant piece of urban reportage in which Sociologist Duneier examines the work and life of Greenwich Village's sidewalk vendors, and the larger city culture that, at times, surprisingly, envelops and supports them, but, more often, disregards or criminalizes them.
The men portrayed in the book are, at any given time, intelligent, articulate, and dignified, at others flawed, enfranchised, and disenchanted by the societal expectations of 'proper job,' and the dizzying number of written and unwritten laws on how to use, and not use, a sidewalk.
The men portrayed in the book are, at any given time, intelligent, articulate, and dignified, at others flawed, enfranchised, and disenchanted by the societal expectations of 'proper job,' and the dizzying number of written and unwritten laws on how to use, and not use, a sidewalk.
July 6, 2013
This book is GREAT, especially for people living in big cities. The author spent years among booksellers, magazine sellers, and others selling items on the sidewalk in one part of Greenwich village and provides a detailed description and analysis of their lives and the sub-culture of the sidewalk. There are a lot of negative assumptions made about the types of people portrayed in this book (especially the homeless)-- and this book did a perfect job delving into the actual lives (and humanity) of the various characters. I now see the guy who sits in a wheelchair outside of my subway station every single day in a very different light...
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October 17, 2024Does anyone know what happened to the informal economy of ‘the sidewalk’?
I am an urban sociology student and loved this study/ read. I am currently in New York City and would love to see this in real life. Of course, time has passed and the society we see today is very different from the 90’s. Still I would have expected to see some vendors around Greenwhich Ave, 8th street. There’s plenty of second hand book stores in this city that are crowded. Also a lot of unhoused people in the streets. Did maybe a law change?
I am an urban sociology student and loved this study/ read. I am currently in New York City and would love to see this in real life. Of course, time has passed and the society we see today is very different from the 90’s. Still I would have expected to see some vendors around Greenwhich Ave, 8th street. There’s plenty of second hand book stores in this city that are crowded. Also a lot of unhoused people in the streets. Did maybe a law change?
March 5, 2009
I'm reading this right now for my self & society class. It's really interesting. It's about the social structure of homeless vendors on the street. Once you get past the profanity, it shows a side of American culture that many people don't see.
May 14, 2013
This is an interesting and compelling ethnography. It focuses on the lives of people that live and work on the sidewalks of Greenwich Village. It is well-written, full of detail but not dry and boring. And the photos by Ovie Carter are poignant and lovely. I highly recommend this book.
September 19, 2013
Sidewalk not only opened my mind, but it deepened my understanding of the world in which we live. The study is fascinating and captivating, while the way in which it is written is easy to follow and understand. I would recommend this book to everyone!
September 26, 2007
Great pictures alonside great commentary of informal social structure on the NYC streets.
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July 24, 2011I will never look at the sidewalk vendors in NYC the same....very insightful
October 10, 2025
Excellent ethnography of Greenwich Village street vendors and their complex social system.
March 28, 2013
One of my all time fav works of Sociology. Great insight
August 15, 2013
Provided some great insight into a world that I didn't know existed.
April 3, 2017
Gave me a radically new perspective on the lives of people who are unhoused or otherwise spend most of their day on the street. Should be required reading for all, especially those in urban areas.
October 8, 2022
If you happen to want to know how to begin understanding the intricate web of social patterns that underlies sidewalk-life in New York City, Sidewalk might just help you do it. Moreover, if you wish to do something about it (whatever that something is), this book might just be necessary. This text has several distinct levels of examination for readers of all walks of life; on the first level, we simply get to hear about individual (and some communal) experiences that are likely foreign to us, in the words of the (largely) men who have them; on the second, these experiences are turned into conversations and interactions with others, broadening the social context; on the third, both the experiences and interactions are framed in the perspective of law-enforcement personnel, passersby, and local business owners; on the fourth, we hear from Business Improvement Districts and those higher up in law and politics; on the fifth, everything becomes very "human-ey," and distinctions and likenesses are drawn between all members of all circles, giving a rather messy picture of life on the sidewalk. As well it should.
One can take many looks at this book, from the Trifecta of Race-Class-Gender, an ecological framework, or a more universal, humanistic lens. My preferred is that last one, though of course we can always include elements of race where appropriate (which is not everywhere): one thing Duneier does well on this point is to illuminate when actions taken by one group of people in the narrative (e.g., the written-matter vendors) are reflected, though viewed differently, in the actions of another group. For instance, he says that public urination is very different based on whether it is occurring on the wall of a tenement or on a golf course (and, of course, who is doing it). However, my mind was also drawn, taking the broadest human view possible, to the actions of the Business Improvement Districts and the vendors themselves; there are some very human parallels between them: both attempt to control space by force, coercion, and capital (though one group, of course, has more power to realize control), both sides' views of one another are based in fundamental ignorance, and both sides fail to see the broader picture — and, failing to see it, they fail to come to an accord. One is tempted to ask what would happen if both populations were to sit down collectively and seek a more permanent solution.
Duneier is careful in treading the line of the academic in this book, and while most of the book is written in observation and direct dialogue, there are larger theoretical framing elements which give us a yet broader picture of why this subculture exists; particularly, Duneier is drawn to Jane Jacobs's views on sidewalk culture (perhaps sparked by one of the people treated in the book) in addition (and perhaps slight opposition) to the oft-cited "Broken Windows" view of things. He treads carefully between the Street and the Tower, and the overall picture is one well-considered and well-conceived. The appendix lays out his methodological framework and enumerates the many challenges he faced in producing this text. His going "all in" should be commended, and without it we'd be left with a much more paltry picture. The book reads fluidly and candidly, and is quite enjoyable, all things considered. The photographs offset the text wonderfully, and provide a true lens onto the microcosm of the sidewalk.
One can take many looks at this book, from the Trifecta of Race-Class-Gender, an ecological framework, or a more universal, humanistic lens. My preferred is that last one, though of course we can always include elements of race where appropriate (which is not everywhere): one thing Duneier does well on this point is to illuminate when actions taken by one group of people in the narrative (e.g., the written-matter vendors) are reflected, though viewed differently, in the actions of another group. For instance, he says that public urination is very different based on whether it is occurring on the wall of a tenement or on a golf course (and, of course, who is doing it). However, my mind was also drawn, taking the broadest human view possible, to the actions of the Business Improvement Districts and the vendors themselves; there are some very human parallels between them: both attempt to control space by force, coercion, and capital (though one group, of course, has more power to realize control), both sides' views of one another are based in fundamental ignorance, and both sides fail to see the broader picture — and, failing to see it, they fail to come to an accord. One is tempted to ask what would happen if both populations were to sit down collectively and seek a more permanent solution.
Duneier is careful in treading the line of the academic in this book, and while most of the book is written in observation and direct dialogue, there are larger theoretical framing elements which give us a yet broader picture of why this subculture exists; particularly, Duneier is drawn to Jane Jacobs's views on sidewalk culture (perhaps sparked by one of the people treated in the book) in addition (and perhaps slight opposition) to the oft-cited "Broken Windows" view of things. He treads carefully between the Street and the Tower, and the overall picture is one well-considered and well-conceived. The appendix lays out his methodological framework and enumerates the many challenges he faced in producing this text. His going "all in" should be commended, and without it we'd be left with a much more paltry picture. The book reads fluidly and candidly, and is quite enjoyable, all things considered. The photographs offset the text wonderfully, and provide a true lens onto the microcosm of the sidewalk.
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June 16, 2020Mitchel Duneier takes a close look at the sidewalk vendors in NYC in Sidewalk. He looks not just at how that world functions, but also at how men end up working on the streets and their attitudes towards doing it.
Basically he is asking how street vendors conceive of themselves when so many others stigmatize their lifestyle and how do they rely on each other as social supports.
I enjoyed reading the books because it challenged some of my preconceived notions. Many street vendors are not homeless, and report that they feel they have a choice in their lifestyle. Many earn quite a bit of money and still choose to remain on the street, for various reasons. I encounter homeless people (or at least people I suspect to be homeless) in my work at the library all the time and while I may have more open opinions about them then the majority of Americans it was still good to read a book on the subject.
The most interesting part of the book (besides his very amusing anecdotes about working with these men on the street) is his account of how the street vendors ended up on the street. Many of them had drug problems that meant they failed to hold down a regular job, while a few others worked for what you might call "corporate America" and chose to stop being "wage slaves". In all the cases, Duneier describes a similar vein which he calls the "fuck it" mentality, which is exactly what it sounds like.
According to Duneier, most of the men think of their work as honest, considering that they could be mugging people instead. And once the "fuck it" mentality hits for whatever reason, street vending is one of the better places to end up, namely because their is a system of social support there. Street vendors act as mentors for younger men, develop friendships and look out for each other. Duneier does not discount the basic human need to be part of a community that accepts you.
Basically he is asking how street vendors conceive of themselves when so many others stigmatize their lifestyle and how do they rely on each other as social supports.
I enjoyed reading the books because it challenged some of my preconceived notions. Many street vendors are not homeless, and report that they feel they have a choice in their lifestyle. Many earn quite a bit of money and still choose to remain on the street, for various reasons. I encounter homeless people (or at least people I suspect to be homeless) in my work at the library all the time and while I may have more open opinions about them then the majority of Americans it was still good to read a book on the subject.
The most interesting part of the book (besides his very amusing anecdotes about working with these men on the street) is his account of how the street vendors ended up on the street. Many of them had drug problems that meant they failed to hold down a regular job, while a few others worked for what you might call "corporate America" and chose to stop being "wage slaves". In all the cases, Duneier describes a similar vein which he calls the "fuck it" mentality, which is exactly what it sounds like.
According to Duneier, most of the men think of their work as honest, considering that they could be mugging people instead. And once the "fuck it" mentality hits for whatever reason, street vending is one of the better places to end up, namely because their is a system of social support there. Street vendors act as mentors for younger men, develop friendships and look out for each other. Duneier does not discount the basic human need to be part of a community that accepts you.
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