G Purser
Biographic Data
| ID | 11048 |
|---|---|
| NAME | G Purser |
| GIVEN NAMES | G |
| FAMILY NAME | Purser |
| SIGNATURE | PURSER G |
| AFFILIATIONS | Syracuse University |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-9827-5085 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 19 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 84 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 19 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics
Fighting to Survive
Unions played differing roles in terms of addressing the public health challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article presents a case study of UNITE HERE's fight for survival in the wake of 98% of its members experiencing job loss in the initial months of the pandemic. Two features of UNITE HERE's pandemic response—the articulation of public health messages driven by a commitment to solidarity and its embrace of its role as a trusted m…
When a House Explodes
Bodies in the Building”
In this article, we examine the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals living in a brand-new reentry housing facility in Syracuse, New York, that we call “New Beginnings.” At this site, a select group of returning residents are placed in permanent supportive housing or shelter beds. In analyzing the experiences of residents, we borrow from Avery Gordon’s conception of “haunting” to explain the seething presence of the prison in a facili…
Furthering Fair Housing
“A Program, Not the Projects”
Prisoner reentry is widely recognized as a hybrid project of poverty governance situated at the intersection of the welfare state and penal state. Numerous scholars have examined the devolved terrain and organizational dynamics of reentry services. Still others have emphasized the particular challenges and importance of housing to the reentry process. However, few have examined how reentry organizations secure or manage housing for their clients,…
Both sides of the Paycheck
This article documents how job readiness programs-as anchors of the devolved organizational landscape of neoliberal poverty governance in the United States-endeavor to instill within the poor not simply the virtue of work, but the virtue of thrift, and thus orient them to 'both sides of the paycheck.' Using a comparative ethnographic study of two community-based, government-funded nonprofit job readiness programs, we show that this pedagogic focu…
Day Labor Agencies, "Backdoor" Hires, and the Spread of Unfree Labor
This article focuses upon a previously overlooked aspect of the "flesh-peddling" day labor business, widely recognized as the epitome of the precarious regime of employment. By physically stockpiling surplus labor to meet their clients' immediate and unpredictable demands, day labor agencies inadvertently give rise to informal day labor markets outside their doors. Drawing upon ethnographic research carried out in the day labor agencies of Baltim…
Disciples and dreamers
Jobless and Godless
In the wake of welfare reform, there has been growing scholarly attention to 'religious neoliberalism' and, specifically, to the practices and politics of faith-based organizations in neoliberalized landscapes of social service provision. While much of this scholarship has suggested a seamless 'fusion' between conservative evangelicalism and neoliberal ideology, ethnographic research has tended to reveal the far more complicated, and contradictor…
Work as unto the Lord
Consuming Work
The Circle of Dispossession
Although tenant evictions are routine in impoverished urban communities throughout the USA, scholars of housing and urban poverty have consistently overlooked this social problem. Drawing predominantly upon participant observation on eviction crews in Baltimore, this study examines the social drama of eviction, focusing upon the orchestration and execution of the court-ordered physical removal of tenants and their property. I find that property m…
Conflicting Commitments
Day Labor
Banished
Transnational Tortillas
The Dignity of Job-Seeking Men
Drawing on interviews and comparative ethnographic fieldwork in two day labor hiring sites (a street corner labor market and a "regulated" day labor worker center), this article examines the discourses through which Latino immigrant day laborers make sense of, and find dignity within, their ongoing quest for work. My findings reveal a clear pattern of "boundary work" along the center/street divide, wherein each group of day laborers asserts its d…
« Que du sale boulot »
Cet article prend pour objet l’augmentation des risques et l’omniprésence des accidents corporels dans les entreprises de travail journalier aux États-Unis. Loin d’être un domaine exotique de l’économie étasunienne, le secteur du travail journalier est bien établi et il génère annuellement plusieurs milliards de dollars. Et parce qu’il fournit des travailleurs jetables, « juste au bon moment », aux entreprises qui forment le cœur du marché du tra…
The Dignity of Job-Seeking Men
Drawing on interviews and comparative ethnographic fieldwork in two day labor hiring sites (a street corner labor market and a "regulated" day labor worker center), this article examines the discourses through which Latino immigrant day laborers make sense of, and find dignity within, their ongoing quest for work. My findings reveal a clear pattern of "boundary work" along the center/street divide, wherein each group of day laborers asserts its d…
The Circle of Dispossession
Although tenant evictions are routine in impoverished urban communities throughout the USA, scholars of housing and urban poverty have consistently overlooked this social problem. Drawing predominantly upon participant observation on eviction crews in Baltimore, this study examines the social drama of eviction, focusing upon the orchestration and execution of the court-ordered physical removal of tenants and their property. I find that property m…
Work as unto the Lord
Jobless and Godless
In the wake of welfare reform, there has been growing scholarly attention to 'religious neoliberalism' and, specifically, to the practices and politics of faith-based organizations in neoliberalized landscapes of social service provision. While much of this scholarship has suggested a seamless 'fusion' between conservative evangelicalism and neoliberal ideology, ethnographic research has tended to reveal the far more complicated, and contradictor…
Both sides of the Paycheck
This article documents how job readiness programs-as anchors of the devolved organizational landscape of neoliberal poverty governance in the United States-endeavor to instill within the poor not simply the virtue of work, but the virtue of thrift, and thus orient them to 'both sides of the paycheck.' Using a comparative ethnographic study of two community-based, government-funded nonprofit job readiness programs, we show that this pedagogic focu…
Bodies in the Building”
In this article, we examine the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals living in a brand-new reentry housing facility in Syracuse, New York, that we call “New Beginnings.” At this site, a select group of returning residents are placed in permanent supportive housing or shelter beds. In analyzing the experiences of residents, we borrow from Avery Gordon’s conception of “haunting” to explain the seething presence of the prison in a facili…
Day Labor Agencies, "Backdoor" Hires, and the Spread of Unfree Labor
This article focuses upon a previously overlooked aspect of the "flesh-peddling" day labor business, widely recognized as the epitome of the precarious regime of employment. By physically stockpiling surplus labor to meet their clients' immediate and unpredictable demands, day labor agencies inadvertently give rise to informal day labor markets outside their doors. Drawing upon ethnographic research carried out in the day labor agencies of Baltim…
Consuming Work
« Que du sale boulot »
Cet article prend pour objet l’augmentation des risques et l’omniprésence des accidents corporels dans les entreprises de travail journalier aux États-Unis. Loin d’être un domaine exotique de l’économie étasunienne, le secteur du travail journalier est bien établi et il génère annuellement plusieurs milliards de dollars. Et parce qu’il fournit des travailleurs jetables, « juste au bon moment », aux entreprises qui forment le cœur du marché du tra…
The Dignity of Job-Seeking Men
Drawing on interviews and comparative ethnographic fieldwork in two day labor hiring sites (a street corner labor market and a "regulated" day labor worker center), this article examines the discourses through which Latino immigrant day laborers make sense of, and find dignity within, their ongoing quest for work. My findings reveal a clear pattern of "boundary work" along the center/street divide, wherein each group of day laborers asserts its d…
Transnational Tortillas
Banished
Day Labor
Conflicting Commitments
Consuming Work
The Circle of Dispossession
Although tenant evictions are routine in impoverished urban communities throughout the USA, scholars of housing and urban poverty have consistently overlooked this social problem. Drawing predominantly upon participant observation on eviction crews in Baltimore, this study examines the social drama of eviction, focusing upon the orchestration and execution of the court-ordered physical removal of tenants and their property. I find that property m…
Work as unto the Lord
Disciples and dreamers
Jobless and Godless
In the wake of welfare reform, there has been growing scholarly attention to 'religious neoliberalism' and, specifically, to the practices and politics of faith-based organizations in neoliberalized landscapes of social service provision. While much of this scholarship has suggested a seamless 'fusion' between conservative evangelicalism and neoliberal ideology, ethnographic research has tended to reveal the far more complicated, and contradictor…
Day Labor Agencies, "Backdoor" Hires, and the Spread of Unfree Labor
This article focuses upon a previously overlooked aspect of the "flesh-peddling" day labor business, widely recognized as the epitome of the precarious regime of employment. By physically stockpiling surplus labor to meet their clients' immediate and unpredictable demands, day labor agencies inadvertently give rise to informal day labor markets outside their doors. Drawing upon ethnographic research carried out in the day labor agencies of Baltim…
“A Program, Not the Projects”
Prisoner reentry is widely recognized as a hybrid project of poverty governance situated at the intersection of the welfare state and penal state. Numerous scholars have examined the devolved terrain and organizational dynamics of reentry services. Still others have emphasized the particular challenges and importance of housing to the reentry process. However, few have examined how reentry organizations secure or manage housing for their clients,…
Both sides of the Paycheck
This article documents how job readiness programs-as anchors of the devolved organizational landscape of neoliberal poverty governance in the United States-endeavor to instill within the poor not simply the virtue of work, but the virtue of thrift, and thus orient them to 'both sides of the paycheck.' Using a comparative ethnographic study of two community-based, government-funded nonprofit job readiness programs, we show that this pedagogic focu…
Bodies in the Building”
In this article, we examine the experiences of formerly incarcerated individuals living in a brand-new reentry housing facility in Syracuse, New York, that we call “New Beginnings.” At this site, a select group of returning residents are placed in permanent supportive housing or shelter beds. In analyzing the experiences of residents, we borrow from Avery Gordon’s conception of “haunting” to explain the seething presence of the prison in a facili…
Furthering Fair Housing
When a House Explodes
Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics
Fighting to Survive
Unions played differing roles in terms of addressing the public health challenges wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic. This article presents a case study of UNITE HERE's fight for survival in the wake of 98% of its members experiencing job loss in the initial months of the pandemic. Two features of UNITE HERE's pandemic response—the articulation of public health messages driven by a commitment to solidarity and its embrace of its role as a trusted m…
Political science (15 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Law (12 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (7 works) · Labor Movements and Unions (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Employment and Welfare Studies (6 works) · Law (6 works) · Ideology (4 works)