Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation
A place like Orlando, Florida is not transformed from swampland to sprawling metropolis through Peter Pan-like flights of fancy, but through theme park expansions requiring developmental schemes that are tough minded and often worsen relationships between the wealthy and the poor. The homeless arrive with their own hopes and illusions, which are soon shattered. The rest of the local population makes its peace with the system. Meanwhile the homeless are reduced to advocacy models that neither middle- nor working-class folks much worry about. They are modern members of Ellison's "invisible men" but they comprise a racial and social mixture unlike any other in the American landscape.

This book is primarily about the dark side of this portrait—the poor, near-poor, homeless, and dispossessed who live in the midst of this verdant landscape. The phrase "down and out," has been used to describe people who are destitute or penniless since the late nineteenth century. Here the term is used in a more expansive sense, as synonymous with anyone who lives near, at, or over the edge of financial catastrophe.

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Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation
A place like Orlando, Florida is not transformed from swampland to sprawling metropolis through Peter Pan-like flights of fancy, but through theme park expansions requiring developmental schemes that are tough minded and often worsen relationships between the wealthy and the poor. The homeless arrive with their own hopes and illusions, which are soon shattered. The rest of the local population makes its peace with the system. Meanwhile the homeless are reduced to advocacy models that neither middle- nor working-class folks much worry about. They are modern members of Ellison's "invisible men" but they comprise a racial and social mixture unlike any other in the American landscape.

This book is primarily about the dark side of this portrait—the poor, near-poor, homeless, and dispossessed who live in the midst of this verdant landscape. The phrase "down and out," has been used to describe people who are destitute or penniless since the late nineteenth century. Here the term is used in a more expansive sense, as synonymous with anyone who lives near, at, or over the edge of financial catastrophe.

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Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation

Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation

by James Wright
Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation
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Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation

Poor and Homeless in the Sunshine State: Down and Out in Theme Park Nation

by James Wright

Overview

A place like Orlando, Florida is not transformed from swampland to sprawling metropolis through Peter Pan-like flights of fancy, but through theme park expansions requiring developmental schemes that are tough minded and often worsen relationships between the wealthy and the poor. The homeless arrive with their own hopes and illusions, which are soon shattered. The rest of the local population makes its peace with the system. Meanwhile the homeless are reduced to advocacy models that neither middle- nor working-class folks much worry about. They are modern members of Ellison's "invisible men" but they comprise a racial and social mixture unlike any other in the American landscape.

This book is primarily about the dark side of this portrait—the poor, near-poor, homeless, and dispossessed who live in the midst of this verdant landscape. The phrase "down and out," has been used to describe people who are destitute or penniless since the late nineteenth century. Here the term is used in a more expansive sense, as synonymous with anyone who lives near, at, or over the edge of financial catastrophe.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781412842211
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Publication date: 05/15/2011
Pages: 336
Product dimensions: 6.80(w) x 9.10(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

James D. Wright is an author, educator, and the Provost’s Distinguished Research Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Central Florida. He has written twenty-four books and more than 300 journal articles, book chapters, essays, reviews, and polemics.

Amy M. Donley is also with the department of sociology at the University of Central Florida. Her writings on homelessness have appeared in other works, such as Homelessness in America.

Table of Contents

1: In the Shadow of the Mouse: Central Florida as Myth, Metaphor, and Reality; 2: Poverty in Central Florida: Work, Wages, and Well-being among Low and Moderate Income Families 1; 3: One Thousand Homeless Men; 4: Transients and Frequent Flyers: Patterns of Shelter Utilization and Their Implications for Social Policy; 5: It’s Not Who We Are: Realities of Homelessness for Women and Children 1; 6: Shelter Life: Risk or Respite?; 7: Lovely, Dark, and Deep: Central Florida’s Woods People 1; 8: The Drunk, the Addicted, and the Just Plain Shiftless? 1; 9: “No Place for Sissies”: The Elderly Homeless 1; 10: Mean as a Snake, Crazy as a Shithouse Rat: Public Perceptions of the Homeless 1; 11: The Kindness of Strangers: Volunteers, Volunteerism, and the Homeless; 12: A Tale of Two Cities: Homeless Politics and Services in Miami and Orlando; 13: What Have We Learned?
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Social Sciences
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Social Sciences
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Sociology - General & Miscellaneous

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