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Cited by 558

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 96 of the 96 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Disposable Ties and the Urban Poor

Desmond, Matthew·2012·American Journal of Sociology
DOI 10.1086/663574
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Abstract

Sociologists long have observed that the urban poor rely on kinship networks to survive economic destitution. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork among evicted tenants in high-poverty neighborhoods, this article presents a new explanation for urban survival, one that emphasizes the importance of disposable ties formed between strangers. To meet their most pressing needs, evicted families often relied more on new acquaintances than on kin. Disposable ties facilitated the flow of various resources, but often bonds were brittle and fleeting. The strategy of forming, using, and burning disposable ties allowed families caught in desperate situations to make it from one day to the next, but it also bred instability and fostered misgivings among peers.

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Metadata

Authors
Desmond, M.
Venue
American Journal of Sociology
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Published
2012-03
Volume
117
Issue
5
Pages
1295-1335
ISSN
  • 0002-9602 (ISSN-L)
  • 1537-5390
DOI
10.1086/663574
OpenAlex
W2031923965
Cited by
558
References
96
FWCI
42.29
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Disposable Ties and the Urban Poor. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1086/663574
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Desmond, M. (2012). Disposable Ties and the Urban Poor. American Journal of Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1086/663574

Data sources

Bibliographic data: Semantic Scholar, OpenAlex, Crossref.

Contains information from the Semantic Scholar Academic Graph Datasets, made available under the ODC Attribution License (ODC-BY 1.0).

Semantic Scholar’s data is described in: Kinney, R., et al. (2023). The Semantic Scholar Open Data Platform. arXiv:2301.10140.