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Philippe I. Bourgois

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Righteous Dopefiend (Volume 21) (California Series in Public Anthropology) First Edition

by Philippe Bourgois (Author), Jeffrey Schonberg (Author)

4.5 243 ratings

Part of: California Series in Public Anthropology (50 books)

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This powerful work of gonzo journalism, predating the widespread acknowledgement of the opioid epidemic as such, immerses the reader in the world of homelessness and drug and alcohol abuse in the contemporary United States. For over a decade Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg followed a social network of two dozen heroin injectors and crack smokers in the San Francisco drug scene, accompanying them as they scrambled to generate income through burglary, larceny, panhandling, recycling, and day labor. Righteous Dopefiend interweaves stunning black-and-white photography with vivid dialogue, oral biography, detailed field notes, and critical theoretical analysis to viscerally illustrate the life of a drug addict. Its gripping narrative develops a cast of characters around the themes of violence, racism and race relations, sexuality, trauma, embodied suffering, social inequality, and power relations. The result is a dispassionate chronicle of fixes and overdoses; of survival, loss, caring, and hope rooted in the drug abusers’ determination to hang on for one more day, through a "moral economy of sharing" that precariously balances mutual solidarity and interpersonal betrayal.

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. In this gritty ethnography exploring the world of San Francisco's homeless heroin addicts, Bourgois, anthropology and community medicine professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Schonberg, a photographer and graduate student in medical anthropology, draw on a decade immersed in this subculture to eloquently elaborate on the survival techniques and intimate lives of black and white addicts who live in self-made communities and work the economic fringes for survival. The authors explore racial boundaries and crossings, love stories, family relations, parenting, histories of childhood abuse, as well as the constant work of navigating hostile police enforcement, exploitative and helpful business owners, overburdened medical services and social service bureaucracies. The book details the gruesome material toll of addiction, infection and homelessness and the risks of ongoing personal and institutional violence. Bourgois and Schonberg create a deeply nuanced picture of a population that cannot escape social reprobation, but deserves social inclusion. Schonberg's photographs capture the scars of addiction, the social bonds between romantic pairs and drug-running partners and the concerted efforts at domesticity without a domicile. The collage of case studies, field notes, personal narratives and photography is nothing short of enthralling. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

“Bourgois and Schonberg’s exceptional ethnography produces a deep sense of how life is lived in these terrible and precarious circumstances. But the book is much more than written description, with its sophisticated used of photography and the theoretical perspective that forms a backdrop for the ethnography.” ― American Journal of Sociology

“A deeply nuanced picture of a population that cannot escape social reprobation, but deserves social inclusion. . . . The collage of case studies, field notes, personal narratives and photography is nothing short of enthralling.” - Starred Review ― Publishers Weekly

“Leaders and readers alike should pay attention to - and heed its warnings and advice. . . . Unflinching and objective. . . . Must be read - and seen.” ― San Francisco Chronicle

“The authors dare you to ignore the subculture in their field notes and arresting black-and-white images, urging that our failed social systems need repairing and we cannot continue to let these outliers remain invisible.” ― Utne Reader

“Powerfully candid.” ― Zocalo Public Square

“One of the most original and important works of its kind. . . . A pathbreaking photo-ethnography, powerful in presentation, content and scope. . . . A must-read, [it] will rock the world of the sheltered middle class and shed new light on the pervasive structural inequalities plaguing contemporary society.” ― Philadelphia Inquirer

“Get this book and read it. If you're interested in homelessness, addiction, or in the public health issues surrounding IV drug use, this is an excellent source of information. The authors treat their subject brilliantly and with great compassion. . . . These people walk by you every day and should not remain invisible.” ― San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Truly remarkable.” ― Arena Magazine

“Recommended.” ― Choice

“With a combination of photographs, dialogue, field notes and critical theory, the book provides a detailed analysis of the social structure of an underground society in contemporary America.” ― Roof Magazine

From the Inside Flap

"Based on over a decade of field research, Righteous Dopefiend is a searing portrait of the lives of homeless injection drug users in San Francisco and an analysis of the powerful forces that shape their lives. ...This book brings into our visual and moral field the plight of those whom we have condemned to the margins, documenting the struggle that is the condition of their daily existence and exploring the social structures that enforce their suffering." Angela Garcia, The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession Along the Rio Grande

"Calling this book ethnography would be like calling The Wire a cop show: what comes roaring out of its pages is almost as visceral and devastating as spending a night in 'the hole' itself." Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

"Plunge beneath the surface of America's no-man's lands. Find in the dead-end alleyways, storage lots, and overgrown embankments the terrifying but strangely ordered world of homeless heroin injectors. This book will test your cultural relativism to destruction, but along the way you will learn a great deal about destitution, about homelessness, about addiction, and about violence at all levels. These dopefiends are 'made in America'." Paul Willis, author of Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs, and co-founding editor of Ethnography

"Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg provide a riveting narrative of the daily struggles for survival of homeless people with a physical and emotional addiction to heroin. The authors' poignant account of these experiences features sophisticated analytic themes that enable them insightfully to integrate discussions of agency and moral responsibility on the part of homeless addicts with an analysis of the powerful structural forces that shape the addicts' lives. Righteous Dopefiend is a must-read." William Julius Wilson, author of More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City

Bourgois and Schonberg deliver luminous images and intimate portraits of unforgettable Dickensian characters a host of late-modern hobos, hustlers, dumpster divers, and sweet-talking jivers whose addiction consigns them to lives of public ignominy and private pleasures transacted under the concrete freeway overpasses of a totally indifferent San Francisco. This tough book is a must-read for all. Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of Death Without Weeping

If Pierre Bourdieu, George Orwell, and Walker Evans had met in a homeless encampment under a San Francisco highway, they could not have produced a more penetrating portrait of America's urban outcasts than Righteous Dopefiend. Fusing ethnography, photography, and social theory, Bourgois and Schonberg take the reader on the frantic roller coaster ride of daily subsistence among a clique of indigent heroin addicts. This searing anthropology of everyday violence in the underbelly of the American metropolis will challenge social scientists and public health experts, stun lay readers, and shame public officials oblivious to the social dereliction their failed policies are spawning. Loïc Wacquant, author of Urban Outcasts and Punishing the Poor

From the Back Cover

"Based on over a decade of field research, Righteous Dopefiend is a searing portrait of the lives of homeless injection drug users in San Francisco and an analysis of the powerful forces that shape their lives. ...This book brings into our visual and moral field the plight of those whom we have condemned to the margins, documenting the struggle that is the condition of their daily existence and exploring the social structures that enforce their suffering." ―Angela Garcia, The Pastoral Clinic: Addiction and Dispossession Along the Rio Grande

"Calling this book ethnography would be like calling The Wire a cop show: what comes roaring out of its pages is almost as visceral and devastating as spending a night in 'the hole' itself."―Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums

"Plunge beneath the surface of America's no-man's lands. Find in the dead-end alleyways, storage lots, and overgrown embankments the terrifying but strangely ordered world of homeless heroin injectors. This book will test your cultural relativism to destruction, but along the way you will learn a great deal about destitution, about homelessness, about addiction, and about violence at all levels. These dopefiends are 'made in America'."―Paul Willis, author of Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs, and co-founding editor of Ethnography

"Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg provide a riveting narrative of the daily struggles for survival of homeless people with a physical and emotional addiction to heroin. The authors' poignant account of these experiences features sophisticated analytic themes that enable them insightfully to integrate discussions of agency and moral responsibility on the part of homeless addicts with an analysis of the powerful structural forces that shape the addicts' lives. Righteous Dopefiend is a must-read."―William Julius Wilson, author of More than Just Race: Being Black and Poor in the Inner City

“Bourgois and Schonberg deliver luminous images and intimate portraits of unforgettable Dickensian characters―a host of late-modern hobos, hustlers, dumpster divers, and sweet-talking jivers―whose addiction consigns them to lives of public ignominy and private pleasures transacted under the concrete freeway overpasses of a totally indifferent San Francisco. This tough book is a must-read for all.”―Nancy Scheper-Hughes, author of Death Without Weeping

“If Pierre Bourdieu, George Orwell, and Walker Evans had met in a homeless encampment under a San Francisco highway, they could not have produced a more penetrating portrait of America's urban outcasts than Righteous Dopefiend. Fusing ethnography, photography, and social theory, Bourgois and Schonberg take the reader on the frantic roller coaster ride of daily subsistence among a clique of indigent heroin addicts. This searing anthropology of everyday violence in the underbelly of the American metropolis will challenge social scientists and public health experts, stun lay readers, and shame public officials oblivious to the social dereliction their failed policies are spawning.”―Loïc Wacquant, author of Urban Outcasts and Punishing the Poor

About the Author

Philippe Bourgois is Richard Perry University Professor of Anthropology and Family and Community Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jeff Schonberg is a photographer and a graduate student in medical anthropology at the University of California, San Francisco.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ University of California Press; First Edition (May 29, 2009)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 392 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0520254988
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0520254985
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.2 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7 x 0.9 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #318,610 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #266 in Sociology of Urban Areas
- #924 in Criminology (Books)
- #1,004 in Cultural Anthropology (Books)

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4.5 243 ratings

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Ashraf

Rigteous Dopefeind

Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2009

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The review of Wacquant was very true when he said if Bourdieu,Orwell and Walker Evans had met in a homeless encampment in San Francisco Highway,they could not have produced a more penetrating portrait of America's urban outcast than 'Righteous Dopefiend'. This book is a very important contribution from Philippe Bourgois and Jeff Schonberg theoretically,methodologically and the use of applied public anthropology.
Methodologically,the use of collaborative photo-ethnography is a strategic choice by the authors to expose the distress of the socially vulnerable who remain invisible to the larger society.As the authors argue that photo-ethnography has the potential to effectively portray unacceptable social phenomena because it draws aesthetics ,emotion and documentation into the social science analysis and theory and tries to link intellect with politics but at the same time it is important to remain critically reflexive because as post modern theory inform us that social truth is an artifact of power and our categorization and conception of reality are historical constructs and therefore, as representational practices both photography and ethnography are torn between representing and humanizing and thus there can not be any transcendental solution or reality.But as far as this photo-ethnography is concerned ,they were successful in portraying the immediate environment of the homeless people and at the same time humanizing the 'subjects' who almost always loses them selves in the written ethnographies. The photos,interview's text and analysis complement each other in the representation of the lives of homeless addicts.
The conventional theoretical academic binary distinction between structure and agency is more of a ideological debate which does not offer any significant insight into complex historical and contemporary outcomes.The concept of 'lumpen abuse' sets the theorization of abuse of individual experience of suffering in the context of structural forces .As the authors points out explicitly that the suffering of homeless heroine injectors is chronic and cumulative phenomena that can be best understood as a politically structured phenomena.The combination of Marx's class theory,Bourdieu's symbolic violence and Foucault's concept of power have contributed to the building of the concept of 'lumpen abuse'.Lumpen abuse highlights the way structurally imposed everyday suffering generates violent and destructive subjectivities.The corporate neoliberalism as a dominant mode of production is producing growing numbers of lumpenized populations.The biopower governamentality have been internalized by the citizens but the violent coercion increasingly characterize neoliberal forms of governmentality and therefore,the term lumpen' can best be understood as adjective rather than as a bounded class category.
The linkage of theory and practice is an imperative for anthropologist who studies people in extreme distress to operate at policy level and specific local level intervention.But applied work is never political rather policy debates become the part of the problem by shifting political issues into a technocratic register.The authors emphasize the need for humility and self-reflection when building theory to inform urgent public debates.At the immediate policy level the authors suggest that simple prescription can lessen the suffering of the addicts.The availability of good enough treatment combined with harm reduction and strategic support after detox is an important steps in lessing the suffering of the homeless heroine injectors and reintegrating them in the community. These immediate intervention can help to certain extent but can not overturn the structural violence of the globalized Neoliberalism

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Lobsterfrosting

Professional or not...

Reviewed in the United States on May 14, 2012

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I was assigned this book for my Sociology 104 class at KU. Out of the five books we were expected to read, this book was definitely top 3 (with Connected and Sidewalk, thought the other two - The Tender Cut & The Second Shift - were also eye-opening as well). Though I still have trouble with remembering what terms belong to what principles, like hegemony, my understanding of what was taught in the class was paralleled. This book is an eye opener and you don't need to understand what all of the terms mean to get a feel for the point being made here. Yes, there are a couple of chapters that express the meaning of this study in terms that are difficult to take on, especially if you are not expecting to or interested in studying sociology beyond the basics or have studied, but don't let that affect your decision when ascertaining the truth. This book is amazing and nearly riveting. I did understand the professional terms, for the most part, while I read this book (since I was knee deep in the class at the time and soaking up as much 'goody' as possible) and I would just like to say that it is worth your time.

This book focuses on a group of homeless heroine addicts (though many smoke crack and drink as well). This study/story shows a parallel of survival and social structure similar to that of 'normal' life, but, of course, with a bias of illegal dependency and the carelessness for others; the root of the human soul in some (maybe many) cases. Through a constant circus ride of highs and lows, this group of lost individuals will tear your heart out as they make blind, selfish choices, cleanse themselves of addiction and fall back into the arms of homeless hopelessness, scavenge for opportunities to make good to fix, and many other awful reasons that will hopefully deter any sane member of the human race from ever touching a drug that has been repeatedly proven as B.A.D. since 1918 (after its discovery in 1889... hm). That was a long sentence. :/

Read it, love/hate it, & pass it on...

If you do not find this review helpful, please comment as to why. Thank you!

8 people found this helpful

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Jana Burson

Photo-ethnography

Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2010

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This is a chronicle of a group of homeless people in the Edgewater area of San Francisco. Two ethnographers followed this group of homeless for about ten years. This book is a picture, or movie, about the ways of the homeless.

All of the homeless were addicted. They used heroin, crack, and alcohol in various combinations. The ethnographers describe how they get the money for their drugs, and how they live in the open,under highways, etc. It describes their social relations, including between races and between sexes. It shows how the homeless interact with the local business owners, with medical personnel, and treatment center personnel.

It's a long book and full of details and observations. The photographs weren't good. Many were poorly lit and out of focus, but perhaps that's inevitable given the environment and situation.

it's a realistic book. I felt resentment at the authors' attempts to infantalize the homeless by insisting they had no part in their own homelessness. It's clear that addiction propagated the homelessness, but few of the homeless persistently sought help for addiction, though admittedly, it can be difficult in this country for addicts to access treatment. It's especially hard for the poor and homeless.

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Top reviews from other countries

Pat Hannigan

My Favourite Read Of All Time

Reviewed in Canada on May 25, 2023

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A must read

Vixx

An intelligent, sad book

Reviewed in France on April 29, 2021

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I bought this book after reading "In search of respect" and was not disappointed. Maybe it was less informative or rather, differently informative - "In search of respect" had a heavier take on history and theory, while this book provides some but insists even more on the lives of the addicts, which of course is very informative in a different way... It's "easier to read", and even more heartbreaking,.

Salimata

Fantastic, from the intro to the end

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 25, 2014

Verified Purchase

Very well thought out & designed piece of qualatative research, you feel like your actually there plus the photos add so much more. Great writing

One person found this helpful

Amazon Customer

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 20, 2016

Verified Purchase

A good book for someone wanting to know a bit about addicts.

Leda Anne

Interdependence, Love and Survival: Stories behind the addiction

Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2016

Verified Purchase

I purchased this ethnography for an anthropology course in my undergrad. It is an excellent ethnography combined with photography. I think about the content in this book often, as it is one of the best I have read on the subject. It combines well written stories to demonstrate principles that are often describe in overly academic writing. By normalizing the behaviours of addicts and sharing stories of love and survival, Bourgois deconstructs misconceptions addicts. Strong networks of interdependence and support networks exist in addiction communities. I would recommend this book for anyone wanting a different perspective on addiction. I have not read 'Selling Crack in El Barrio', however I plan to in the future.

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