Eviction and the reproduction of urban poverty

Drawing on two methods—ethnographic fieldwork in poor Milwaukee neighborhoods and documentary analysis of eviction records—this study explores the causes, dynamics, and consequences of eviction and, more broadly, plumbs the intricate workings of poor communities and the low-cost housing market. It consists of three self-standing articles. The first identifies eviction as a common occurrence in predominately black neighborhoods and as a mechanism impelling the feminization of poverty throughout the inner city. Just as incarceration has become typical in the lives of men from impoverished black neighborhoods, eviction has become typical in the lives of women from these neighborhoods. The second investigates the survival strategies of the urban poor. By allowing me to evaluate the degree to which tenants experiencing a crisis depend on family and friends, eviction provides a unique occasion to study the structures of poor peoples' networks and how those networks help or handicap them in times of need. Most evicted tenants eschew petitioning kin for help in favor of forming "disposable ties" with new acquaintances. This strategy allows families caught in a desperate situation to make it from one day to the next; but it also breeds instability and fosters deep misgivings between peers, thwarting possibilities for social solidarity and genuine community. The third article presents an alternative to group- and place-based ethnography—that of relational ethnography—which takes as its scientific object a process involving a configuration of relations between different actors and agencies. Although relational ethnography comes with its own set of challenges, it can transcend the limitations of place- and group-based fieldwork by analyzing how social actors exist in a state of mutual dependence and struggle.