Invisible in Austin examines the lives of those living on “the other side” of the booming city of Austin, Texas. It does so by taking an in-depth look at the ways in which individual lives (of an undocumented worker, a homeless woman, a cab driver, a domestic worker, an activist, etc.) intersect with larger social forces. The book is the product of the collective work of a group of sociology and social work graduate students under the supervision of Professor Javier Auyero.
Invisible in Austin.
Life and Labor in an American City.
Edited by Javier Auyero.
"Invisible in Austin tracks the peregrinations of a dozen people dwelling in the nether regions of Austin’s class and spatial structure…. Located at the crossroads between urban studies, lifestory and life history, and the sociology of labor, this team inquiry into social suffering in an American technopolis offers rich materials for probing the existential contours of the contemporary precariat."
Loïc Wacquant. Afterword. Plumbing the Social Underbelly of the Dual City
"This book treats the lives of marginalized workers as not only important, but as the focus for the analysis itself. This does not mean that the book has no theoretical relevance: far from it. What it means is that the narratives provide the means with which to explore broader issues relating to the economy, immigration, public health, gender, race, sexuality, etc."
Robert Gay, Connecticut College
"The book is a tour de force as a pedagogical volume initiated by a teacher with his students that morphed into a genuine group project much bigger than expected. They built intellectual community and created an interesting theoretical academic practical pedagogical and politically critical urban ethnography volume."
Philippe Bourgois. Professor of Anthropology and Family and Community Medicine, University of Pennsylvania
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