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An Ethnography of the Goodman Building

The Longest Rent Strike

Palgrave Macmillan

Authors:

  • Grounds urban ethnography in a physical space, the Goodman Building
  • Provides the first example of a “building biography” in Urban Anthropology, a model for future study
  • Examines the greatly changing urban environment from the point of view of a single community

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology (PSUA)

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Table of contents (16 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xvi
  2. The National Context for the Goodman Building

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 1-1
  3. Setting the Scene of the Goodman Building

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 63-64
    2. Preface to the Goodman Building Ethnography

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 65-80
    3. The Background and Setting

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 81-83
    4. Redevelopment in the Western Addition

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 85-90
  4. The Goodman Building in Transition: From Single Room Occupancy for Temporary Workers to Artist Hotel to Community Action

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 91-91
  5. The Goodman Building in Transition: From Single Room Occupancy for Temporary Workers to Artist Hotel to Community Action

    1. Beat Rebels with a Cause, Hippies and Community

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 121-129
    2. The Monday Night Meeting

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 131-183
    3. Living in an Art Community

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 185-205
  6. Communities of Change and Occupation

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 207-207
    2. Learning from Others and Spreading the Word

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 209-220
    3. Democracy at Home

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 221-236
    4. Repression, Reaction and Retrenchment

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 265-284
    5. The Strike Ends, Losing the Goodman Building

      • Niccolo Caldararo
      Pages 285-298
  7. A New Start in a Changing City

    1. Front Matter

      Pages 299-299

About this book

“An Ethnography of the Goodman Building vividly incorporates a wide variety of methods to tell the story of class struggle in a building, neighborhood, and city that is replicated globally. I read it as a number of boxes inside each other opened in the course of reading. Caldararo recounts the building’s personal “biography” to convey not only the “facts about,” but the “feelings about” the flesh and blood of the building and its surrounding neighborhood.” —Jerome Krase, Brooklyn College of The City University of New York, USA

“This unique contribution to the field of urban and regional studies counteracts current trends in the ethnographies of urban movements by offering, with great hindsight, an analysis from a physical space, and from first-hand experience. The focal point is one building, and the author is a former tenant. This perspective is appealing, especially in an era of global connections where macro social movements are on the front line of urban life and research.” —Nathalie Boucher, Director and Researcher, Respire, and Affiliated Professor Assistant, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Concordia University, Canada.

Through in-depth analysis and narrative investigation of an actual building occupation, Niccolo Caldararo seeks to not only offer an historical account of the Goodman Building in San Francisco, but also focus on the active resistance tactics of its residents from the 1960s to the 1980s. Taking as its focal point the building itself, the volume weaves in and out of every life involved and the struggles that surround it—San Francisco’s urban renewal, ethnic clearing, gentrification, and municipal governance at a time of booming urban growth. Caldararo, a tenant at the center of its strikes and activities, provides a unique perspective that counteracts current trends in ethnographies of urban movements by grounding its analysis in physical and tangible space.


Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of Anthropology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, USA

    Niccolo Caldararo

About the author

Niccolo Caldararo is Lecturer in Anthropology at San Francisco State University, USA. In addition to academic work on medical anthropology, economic anthropology, and other fields, he is an active consultant in artifact conservation and analysis.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: An Ethnography of the Goodman Building

  • Book Subtitle: The Longest Rent Strike

  • Authors: Niccolo Caldararo

  • Series Title: Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-12285-0

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-12284-3Published: 08 May 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-12287-4Published: 14 August 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-12285-0Published: 25 April 2019

  • Series ISSN: 2946-2436

  • Series E-ISSN: 2946-2444

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XVI, 374

  • Number of Illustrations: 30 b/w illustrations, 29 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Ethnography, Social Anthropology, Cultural Studies, Urban Studies/Sociology, Social Structure, Social Inequality

Buy it now

Buying options

eBook USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access