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Article published In: Journal of Narrative and Life History
Vol. 6:2 (1996) ► pp.123–143

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Life Stories, Status, and Symbolic Typing: Exploring Beggars As an Interpretive Community

 | Yesrwel College, Ganei-Tikva, Israel
 | Tel-Aviv University, and The Institute for the Study of Travel, Tokyo
Published online: 4 August 2015
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https://doi.org/10.1075/jnlh.6.2.02lif
Abstract Based on fieldwork in a central bus station in Israel, this article focuses on the theme of life stories as an analytical venue into the social world of beggars. Beggars were found to have three statuses, or symbolic types: the handicapped, the prostitute, and the mad. The ethnography describes the interplay between the status and life stories of beggars, and analyzes how life stories are changed vis-a-vis a beggar's change of status. (Sociology, Anthropology)
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Cited by (2)

Cited by two other publications

Andrle, Vladimir
2000. Neither a Dinosaur Nor a Weathercock: The Construction of a Reputably Continuous Self in Czech Postcommunist Life Stories. Qualitative Sociology 23:2 ► pp. 215 ff. DOI logo
Andrle, Vladimir
2001. The Buoyant Class: Bourgeois Family Lineage in the Life Stories of Czech Business Elite Persons. Sociology 35:4 ► pp. 815 ff. DOI logo

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