Invisible in Austin: Life and Labor in an American City, edited by Javier Auyero. University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, 280 pp., ISBN: 9781477303641, £52.00, hardback.
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/bjir.12206 |
| Date | 01 December 2016 |
| Author | Jennifer Mateer |
| Published date | 01 December 2016 |
Book Reviews 877
of what low-level supervisory and administrative sta felt about the upheaval that
they experienced during Ford’s restructuring. It will likely be of interest to industrial
relations practitioners who already believe that labour–management co-operation is
eective,and will also appeal to national and international union leaders who are faced
with plant closures. On the other hand, it is a cautionary tale for rank-and-file union
members and activists. The UAW leadership accepted measures that clearly helped
the Detroit Three automakers stay in business, but they did so at great cost to their
members.
JASON RUSSELL
Empire State College – SUNY
Invisible in Austin: Life and Labor in an American City, edited by Javier Auyero.
University of Texas Press, Austin, TX, 2015, 280 pp., ISBN: 9781477303641,
£52.00, hardback.
There is a price to keepingAustin weird — a city at the forefrontof cultural and creative
industries.This book delves into this ‘other side’ of Austin, the cost of being a place for
creativeeconomies and hipster activities. The study is edited by Dr. Auyero but written
as a collective labour of love. The authors take inspiration fromBourdieu’s Weight of
the World, and as such have written an ethnography on the ways in which particular
constellations of social, economic and political barriers haveproduced suering in the
daily lives of some of Austin’s citizens. This doesn’tmean that the individuals profiled
are representativeof the life of the city, nor are they ‘Austin writ small’ (p.5), but rather
they illuminate the messy ways through which systems of oppression and privilege
intersect and diverge, as well as the ways in which urban inequality is swelling and/or
shifting. This allows the participants to avoidbeing painted as passive victims. Instead,
their highly personal biographies demonstrate howeach maintains a sense of self and
control over their lives. As one homeless participant says,‘I want to be portrayed as a
woman who fell on hard times,not someone who is disadvantaged’ (p. 60).
Much could be written about the individual case studies themselves, but for this
review,I have chosen to give an overview based on the strongest themes found within
various case studies.The book begins with an introduction on the ethics and collective
writing process, then moves into a chapter on the historical, social and economic
relations and how this has shaped contemporary urban relations. This is followed by
11 biographical chapters and concludes with a chapter written by Lo¨
ıc Wacquant.
One of the main themes that comes out of the case studies is the waysin which many
people build Austin, but few get to enjoy it. This links nicely with the sociological
and geographic literature that discusses the ways in which cheap labour, often from
informal employees, is what builds and fosters global cities in both their social and
economic capacities. However, it is this same labour which is often ignored and is
rarely celebrated. Santos says his life is work, Clarissa claims before her injury she
worked ‘all the time. That’s all I do’ (p. 64), Chip says ‘I figure I probably won’t
retire’ (p. 99), and In ´
es discusses the way her job is never done — whether at home
or the workplace. The understanding of the American dream is that ‘hard work and
perseverance are supposed to be the only ingredients needed. .. [however] the truth is
much more complicated’ (p. 100). In this way, the people interviewed are the builders
of Austin, but their economic status means that they are always working for others.
Money in Austin aordsautonomy — lack of money means working for others, which
C
2016 John Wiley& Sons Ltd.
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