National Network for Equitable Library Service

While homelessness has not disappeared from the American social scene, "the homeless" have disappeared from American public discourse following increased attention in the 1980s and early 1990s. In this work, the first volume of the new series, "Dislocations: Anthropologies of Labor, Place, and Displacement," Marcus (international development, Melbourne U. Private, Australia) analyzes the way the discourse on homelessness was constructed and assesses its (negative) influence on the public policy agenda. Based on participant-observation fieldwork among poor nonwhite New Yorkers, his study argues that the "homeless crisis" came to be defined by misunderstandings about poverty, race, and social difference combined with conflict between the Democratic and Republican Parties, thus missing the concrete social policy elements that helped drive people onto the streets.