Urban Ethnography Reading List

Below you can find the literature we have read and discussed as part of our urban ethnography reading group in chronological order. The list is updated biweekly.

1. Desmond, M. (2012). Disposable ties and the urban poor. American Journal of Sociology, 117(5), 1295–1335. https://doi.org/10.1086/663574  

2. Desmond, M. (2014). Relational ethnography. Theory and Society, 43(5), 547–579. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-014-9232-5  

3. Burawoy, M. (2017). On Desmond: The limits of spontaneous sociology. Theory and Society, 46(4), 261–284. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-017-9294-2  

4. Duneier, M. (1999). Sidewalk. Farrar, Straus & Giroux. 

5. Anderson, E. (1999). Code of the street: Decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city. W. W. Norton. 

6. Newman, K. (1999). No shame in my game: The working poor in the inner city. Russell Sage Foundation/Knopf. 

7. Simmons, E. S., & Smith, N. R. (2019). The case for comparative ethnography. Comparative Politics, 51(3), 341–359. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26663934  

8. Abramson, C. M., & Gong, N. (Eds.). (2020). Beyond the case: The logics and practices of comparative ethnography. Oxford University Press. 

9. Goffman, A. (2014). On the run: Fugitive life in an American city. University of Chicago Press. 

10. Lubet, S. (2018). Interrogating ethnography: Why evidence matters. (Publisher not provided; add if known.) 

11. Murphy, A. K., Jerolmack, C., & Smith, D. (2021). Ethnography, data transparency, and the information age. Annual Review of Sociology, 47(1), 41–61. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-090320-124805  

12. Emerald, E., & Carpenter, L. (2015). Vulnerability and emotions in research: Risks, dilemmas, and doubts. Qualitative Inquiry, 21(8), 741–750. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800414566688 

13. Jewkes, Y. (2012). Autoethnography and emotion as intellectual resources: Doing prison research differently. Qualitative Inquiry, 18(1), 63–75. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800411428942  

14. Van Wyk, I. (2013). Beyond ethical imperatives in South African anthropology: Morally repugnant and unlikeable subjects. Anthropology Southern Africa, 36(1–2), 68–79. https://doi.org/10.1080/23323256.2013.11500044 

15. Hanson, R., & Richards, P. (2019). Harassed: Gender, bodies, and ethnographic research. University of California Press.
16. Giubilaro, C. (2025). At the margins of urban tourism: The case of Danisinni, Palermo. Urban Geography, 0(0), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2025.2535786
17. Nomura, A. (2020). The shift of food value through food banks: A case study in Kyoto, Japan. Evolutionary and Institutional Economics Review, 17(1), 243–264. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40844-019-00154-0
18. Visser, K., Bolt, G., & Van Kempen, R. (2015). ‘Come and live here and you’ll experience it’: Youths talk about their deprived neighbourhood. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(1), 36–52. https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2014.933196
19. Arts, J., & van den Berg, M. (2024). What the Dutch benefits scandal and policy’s focus on ‘fraud’ can teach us about the endurance of empire. Critical Social Policy, 45(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/02610183241281346 
20. Boccagni, P. (2025). Undoing nothing: waiting for asylum, struggling for relevance. University of California Press. 
21. Hennigan, B., & Purser, G. (2021). Both sides of the Paycheck: Recommending Thrift to the Poor in Job Readiness Programs. Critical Sociology, 47(3), 389–406. https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920520964537
22. Jaffe, R., Dürr, E., Jones, G. A., Angelini, A., Osbourne, A., & Vodopivec, B. (2020). What does poverty feel like? Urban inequality and the politics of sensation. Urban Studies, 57(5), 1015-1031
23. Hernández, M., Law, S., & Auyero, J. (2022). How Do the Urban Poor Survive? A Comparative Ethnography of Subsistence Strategies in Argentina, Ecuador, and Mexico. Qualitative Sociology, 45(1), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11133-021-09494-z
24. Lee, C. K. (1995). Engendering the worlds of labor: women workers, labor markets, and production politics in the south China economic miracle. American Sociological Review, 60(3), 378-397. https://doi.org/10.2307/2096420
25. Soss, J. (1999). Lessons of Welfare: Policy Design, Political Learning, and Political Action. The American Political Science Review, 93(2), 363–380. https://doi.org/10.2307/2585401
26. Mische, A. (2008). Partisan Publics: Communication and Contention Across Brazilian Youth Activist Networks. Princeton University Press.