This is an ethnographic study of predominantly Puerto Rican low-income people on the Lower East Side of Manhattan who have been involved in the rehabilitation of abandoned buildings through sweat-equity urban homesteading from 1978 to 1993. The study combines a portrait of homesteading in a contemporary urban environment with an analysis of homesteading in the context of economic and political developments at the local, state, and national levels. As participant-observer of the rehabilitation efforts, von Hassell was impressed with the ingenuity and initiative of poor and working-class...

This is an ethnographic study of predominantly Puerto Rican low-income people on the Lower East Side of Manhattan who have been involved in the rehabilitation of abandoned buildings through sweat-equity urban homesteading from 1978 to 1993. The study combines a portrait of homesteading in a contemporary urban environment with an analysis of homesteading in the context of economic and political developments at the local, state, and national levels. As participant-observer of the rehabilitation efforts, von Hassell was impressed with the ingenuity and initiative of poor and working-class...

This study is a portrayal of the political, economic, and cultural history and present of community gardens in a New York City neighborhood, the Lower East Side of Manhattan. An ethnographic study of a particular instance of urban history, it provides a basis for an understanding of urban community gardens in the United States. Beginning with a historical overview of urban community gardening in the United States and other countries, the author concentrates on the last two decades of the 20th century in this portrayal of a social movement that seeks to impact urban environments both in...