Doing the corner: A study of immigrant day laborers in Brooklyn, New York.
Item
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Title
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Doing the corner: A study of immigrant day laborers in Brooklyn, New York.
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Identifier
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AAI3187803
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identifier
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3187803
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Creator
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Pinedo Turnovsky, Carolyn.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Philip Kasinitz
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Date
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2006
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Sociology, Social Structure and Development | Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies | Sociology, Individual and Family Studies | Black Studies
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Abstract
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Day labor is an important and growing sector of the economy across the United States today and New York is no exception. The dissertation is an ethnography about a community of male day laborers in Brooklyn, New York. My research illustrates a labor market in action on a New York City street corner and uncovers the complexity of how social processes of identity construction and management operated in the labor exchanges. Daily life on the corner illustrated how the men developed a self-concept through their particular work experience. I learned from the men about a social order on the comer that linked the men's perceived race, ethnic, and national identities with the desirable status of a "real day laborer" shaping outcomes in the hiring process. I observed how and why day laborers negotiated their identity in the hiring queue to attain and maintain the status of a desirable worker. Moreover, the spatial variation of this corner facilitated the examination of the hiring queue that was utilized by both employers and day laborers. Specifically, the spatial representation of the social order illustrated how racial and ethnic preferences affected the actual labor operations on the corner. Though less apparent, gender was also an integral element in the social order on the corner in a presentation of masculinity linking acts and displays that followed cultural definitions of ser hombre (being a man). As Regulars (immigrants who were mostly Latinos) or Temps (U.S. native-born, who were mostly African American), the population of workers reflects a need to readdress this sector of informal employment in discussions of the changing nature of work in today's society. Though the day labor market is embedded in structural conditions, it is also grounded in the interactions of the persons participating in it and the constructs they use in ultimately shaping it. Struggling to articulate their place in New York City, the men shaped their own reality and constructed social meanings in their active efforts to negotiate their work and social experiences in their daily life on the corner.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
