Road Dogs and Loners: Family Relationships among Homeless Men

(Paperback)

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Description

Using ethnographic interviews, an affiliation scale, and observational data from two "soup kitchens" of homeless men, Road Dogs and Loners investigates the various family types that homeless road dogs and loners rely on for support. Pippert specifically compares homeless men who typically partnered up with homeless men who were self-described loners. The groups are compared here in terms of their contact and support with biological, created, and fictive families. Interdisciplinary in nature, this work tackles themes that are relevant to the study of social class, stratification, economics, social problems, family sociology, social theory and research methods. Road Dogs and Loners provides an updated and in-depth, personal perspective on the lives and relationships of homeless men in America.

Reviews

Timothy Pippert's Road Dogs and Loners offers the most in-depth look at familial relationships of homeless men available today. The author has richly connected his analysis to current literature in the fields of homelessness, family, and gender. Pippert presents a sobering portrait of relational and material poverty across generations, as well as chronicling the efforts of homeless men to forge friendship and "fictive kin" relationships on the streets. This hold-no-punches book is a valuable contribution to the literatures on homelessness, family, and gender at the start of the twenty-first century. -- Leon Anderson, Professor of Sociology, Ohio University
Road Dogs and Loners is a fascinating, multi-method account of the nature and texture of family relationships among two categories of homeless men - those who partner-up and those who go it alone on the streets. It is the most incisive and theoretically informed elaboration of street relationships I have read. A genuine contribution to the literatures on homelessness and on family relationships in the most challenging of contexts.... -- David A. Snow, Chancellor's Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine
This interesting story undoes much conventional wisdom about homelessness...Pipert's mission, to reveal the intrinsic humanity of homeless men, emerges fully. Summing Up: Highly Recommended. All academic levels/libraries. -- E.A. Danto, City University of New York Hunter College * Choice Reviews *
With his in-depth interviewing and perceptive ethnography Timothy Pippert transports us into the lives of homeless men, mapping out their brittle relations. He discovers not only loners but also committed companions or what he calls the "fictive kin" of road dogs. Pippert makes sociological theory dance to the tunes of the street. -- Michael Burawoy, Professor of Sociology, University of California- Berkeley
Road Dogs and Loners is a fascinating, multi-method account of the nature and texture of family relationships among two categories of homeless men - those who partner-up and those who go it alone on the streets. It is the most incisive and theoretically informed elaboration of street relationships I have read. A genuine contribution to the literatures on homelessness and on family relationships in the most challenging of contexts. -- David A. Snow, Chancellor's Professor of Sociology, University of California, Irvine

Author Bio

Timothy D. Pippert is associate professor of sociology at Augsburg College.