Homesteading in New York City, 1978-1993: The Divided Heart of Loisaida

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This is an ethnographic study of predominantly Puerto Rican low-income people on the Lower East Side of Manhattan who have been involved in the rehabilitation of abandoned buildings through sweat-equity urban homesteading from 1978 to 1993. The study combines a portrait of homesteading in a contemporary urban environment with an analysis of homesteading in the context of economic and political developments at the local, state and national levels. As participant-observer of the rehabilitation efforts, von Hassell was impressed with the ingenuity and initiative of poor and working-class people. She came to the conclusion that housing as a central factor in poverty amelioration must be interpreted with other factors such as labour, education and health care, and that despite internal conflicts the project could have been more successful if it had received local political, governmental and social services support.

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[Von Hassell] has succeeded in writing a brilliant, theoretically rich urban ethnography. * American Anthropologist *

Author Bio

Malve von Hassell holds a PhD in anthropology from the New School for Social Research. Currently working as an independent scholar, she has taught at Queens College, Baruch College, and Pace University. Her interests are in the urban anthropology of race, class, and gender.