Leon Anderson

THE MYTH OF PERVASIVE MENTAL ILLNESS AMONG THE HOMELESS

This paper calls into question the double-edged thesis that the majority of the homeless are mentally ill and that the streets of urban America have consequently become the asylums of today. We present data from a triangulated field study of nearly 1,000 unattached homeless adults in Texas that contradict this stereotypic imagery. We also suggest that this root image is due to the medicalization of the problem of homelessness, a misplaced emphasis on the causal role of deinstitutionalization, the heightened visibility of homeless individuals who are mentally ill, and several conceptual and methodological shortcomings of previous attempts to assess the mental status of the homeless. We conclude by arguing that the most common face on the street is not that of the psychiatrically-impaired individual, but of one caught in a cycle of low-paying, dead-end jobs that fail to provide the means to get off and stay off the streets.

Criminality and Homeless Men: An Empirical Assessment

This paper examines the relationship between criminality and homelessness by tracking a random sample of homeless males through the police department records of a large Southwestern city over a 27-month period. When compared with data on criminality in the general population of males within the city over the same period, these data show that while the homeless have a higher overall arrest rate, the majority of offenses for which they are arrested are for public intoxication, followed by theft/shoplifting, violation of city ordinances, and burglary. The findings also suggest that criminality among homeless men varies with time on the streets and contact with the mental health system. Drawing on ethnographic data, these findings are explained in part in terms of criminalization, stigmatization, and adaptation processes. The findings challenge the depiction of homeless men as serious predatory criminals, and suggest a number of theoretical and policy implications.

On Apples, Oranges, and Autopsies A Response to Commentators

Iappreciate the preceding commentators’ thoughtful evaluations of my effort to chart a history of proto-autoethnography within the Chicago School tradition and to specify some key features of what I term “analytic autoethnography.” Most of their evaluations of my essay fall at polar extremes, reflecting a major contemporary divide in ethnographic studies. Because the audience I most hope to reach with the essay is realist or analytic ethnographers who are interested in refining ethnography within the Chicago School tradition, I am pleased that the responses from those who work in that tradition are generally supportive of my proposal. I am disappointed, but not surprised, that the responses from creative or evocatively oriented ethnographers are fairly consistent in their opposition to the research direction that I have suggested. “Apples and oranges,” as Norman Denzin observes. My goal is obviously a meaningless pursuit for any ethnographer who agrees with Denzin that “it is time to close the door on the Chicago School and all of its variations” (2006 [this issue], 422). As much as I admire Norman for his massive contributions to qualitative research, I feel it would be an epic mistake for social scientists to take seriously his call to cordon off the Chicago School realist ethnographic tradition as irrelevant to contemporary and future social inquiry. But, given such antipathy for realist ethnography, it is not surprising that he sees my efforts as just one more example of an antiquated and ineffective mode of social inquiry that is consistently dredged back up by scholars who cannot let go of the past. Having closed the door on the realist tradition, Norman seems weary of rehashing old arguments—of “déjà vu all over again.” “The CAP ethnographer has little in common with Anderson’s analytic ethnographer,” he writes. “I want to move on. Leon does not share this view. So we part ways, reluctantly and respectfully” (2006, 422). But our reluctance to part ways and our respect for each other notwithstanding, Denzin voices deep misgivings, echoed and elaborated by the other critics of my essay. Whatever my intentions, they worry, my essay represents at the very least an oblique and unconscious attack on the alternative ethnographic Journal of Contemporary Ethnography Volume 35 Number 4 August 2006 450-465

Standing Out while Fitting In: Serious Leisure Identities and Aligning Actions among Skydivers and Gun Collectors

Serious leisure communities have proliferated over the past century, providing ever more opportunities for people to enact and embrace leisure-related identities. Serious leisure offers individuals resources to distinguish themselves by developing specialized knowledge, skills, and experiences. But members of serious leisure communities may also feel marginalized when they perceive themselves and their activities as misunderstood by the broader society. This article draws on data from field studies of recreational skydivers and gun collectors to examine key features of serious leisure identities created in these masculinized leisure communities. The authors then describe skydivers’ and gun collectors’ perceptions that they are stereotyped and misunderstood in the broader culture. The authors go on to examine several types of aligning actions through which members of these leisure communities endeavor, individually and collectively, to negotiate their identities, organizations, and activities within the broader society. In the process, the authors highlight interpretive strategies of significance to the study of serious leisure activities more generally.

Managing the Stigma of Personal Bankruptcy

Abstract In recent years, the relationship between personal bankruptcy and stigma has generated much discussion and speculation. However, virtually no research has examined the experiences of bankrupt debtors themselves. In this paper, we provide an analysis of bankruptcy stigma based on thirty-seven in-depth interviews with 19 married couples who filed for personal bankruptcy in 1999. The data demonstrate that stigma is a pervasive feature of contemporary personal bankruptcy and that bankrupt debtors rely upon a wide range of stigma management techniques employed by other stigmatized groups. We conclude by considering the implications of our findings for continued research on personal bankruptcy in the U.S. and for understanding, more broadly, the strategies and struggles for social agency among stressed and marginalized populations.

Assembling Processes in a Periodic Gathering: Halloween in Athens, Ohio

Abstract This paper examines assembling processes involved in attendance at an annually recurring Halloween street celebration in Athens, Ohio. The celebration draws primarily college students from around the state of Ohio. Based on survey data from students at six large public universities in the state, we examine various factors associated with assembling processes to determine their influence on the likelihood of assembling at this event. Specifically, we assess the importance of (1) message exposure, (2) supporting social networks, (3) availability/competing events, (4) prior attendance, (5) distance, and (6) the medium(s) of assembly instruction. We also examine the importance of age, gender, and class rank as predictors of attendance. We conclude with a discussion of the implications of our findings for developing a more detailed theoretical model of assembling processes.

Fitting Stories: Outreach Worker Strategies for Housing Homeless Clients:

Social service outreach workers serving homeless populations exemplify Michael Lipsky’s concept of street-level bureaucrats who exert considerable discretionary power in performance of their roles. In their efforts to qualify their homeless clients for housing, outreach workers create “fitting stories” that present their clients as qualified for support within the social service contexts that provide housing services. We describe outreach workers’ creation and negotiation of fitting stories with two audiences: homeless clients and institutional gatekeepers. Outreach workers respond to barriers to qualifying their clients for housing by creatively finding ways to manipulate clients’ biographical narratives and evidence to support those narratives in ways that “fit” their clients to agency criteria for housing services. In the process, outreach workers at times play loosely with the letter of the law in attempts to meet the spirit of the law in the service of their clients and agency expectations for service delivery.